Sun Pharma to ramp up growth-boosting specialty portfolio in FY26

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd will continue to focus on its specialty products in FY26, which contributed to India's largest drugmaker's growth last fiscal.

The company plans to invest an additional $100 million on the commercialization of its new specialty product pipeline in the US, chairman and managing director Dilip Shanghvi said in an earnings call on Thursday.

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The total revenue from operations increased 8% year-on-year to ₹12,958.8 crore in the fourth quarter ended March, according to its exchange filing on Thursday. That was below ₹13,254 crore average revenue estimated by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

The company’s Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) was up 22.4% at ₹3,716 crore, and adjusted net profit, excluding exceptional items, was up 4.8% year-on-year at ₹2,889 crore in the quarter.

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Sun Pharma’s net profit, however, fell 19% year-on-year to ₹2,154 crore in Q4 due to exceptional items, including an impairment on an investment. That missed Bloomberg consensus estimate of ₹2,794 crore.

For the full year, total revenue from operations rose 8.4% to ₹52,578.4 crore in FY25. The drugmaker expects its consolidated revenue to rise in mid-to-high single digits in FY26.

Ebitda rose 17.3% in FY25, and its adjusted net profit jumped 19%. The performance was driven by improving market share in India and growth in its global specialty business, the company said.

Global specialty pipeline

“The near-term pipeline in global specialty is promising, with products such as Leqselvi and Unloxcyt—the latter through our recently announced Checkpoint acquisition—offering significant improvements in patient care,” Shanghvi said. “We look forward to specialty becoming an increasingly important part of our business.”

Leqselvi, used to treat severe alopecia areata–or hair loss in patches–has received approval for launch in the US, and Sun Pharma received a favourable ruling in a patent lawsuit on the drug in April. The company plans to launch it in the second quarter of this fiscal year, Abhay Gandhi, chief executive officer, North America, told investors during the earnings call.

Uloxcyt, used to treat metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) or locally advanced cSCC, has also received approval for launch, and the company will share a launch timeline once the acquisition of Checkpoint Therapeutics is completed.

“For the current year, we are looking to invest approximately $100 million additionally on commercialization of new specialty [products],” Shanghvi told investors, adding that “this investment will enable us to significantly strengthen our specialty business for the future.”

The investment will be used for commercializing and promoting its new specialty products to healthcare practitioners as well as patient advocacy groups, the management said.

Steady R&D spends

The company also announced some changes in its global specialty clinical pipeline. “We are now seeking a partner for future development and commercialization of MM2 (drug candidate for pain in osteoarthritis) in certain geographies,” Shanghvi said.

Additionally, the company is now planning a phase 2 trial for its drug candidate GL0034 with diabetes as the first indication instead of weight loss.

The overall R&D spend for Q4FY25 was ₹811.6 crore or 6.4% of sales. The specialty R&D accounted for 36% of the total R&D spent for the quarter, the company said. Sun Pharma pegged its FY26 R&D spends at 6-8% of its sales.