What triggered Lupin’s growth spurt & can it be sustained?

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Nilesh Gupta, MD, Vinita Gupta, CEO and Ramesh Swaminathan, Global CFO, Lupin, in conversation with ET Now Pharma major Lupin recorded a consolidated net profit of Rs 453.33 crore for the April-June quarter FY24, as against a consolidated net loss of Rs 86.8 crore reported in the same period a year ago.The India business growth has revived and that too in double digits. What are you seeing coming in there? What were the growth drivers this time around and how to expect growth going forward? Do you think this is sustainable?Nilesh Gupta: We have been lagging a bit. But like we said, from Q2 onwards, we expected to get back to double digit growth and are very happy that it is happening in Q1 itself.

The growth year on year was 10.2%. In fact, if we take out the Cidmus 50 effect from the base and adjust for price impact, the growth was actually 13.6% – ahead of market growth. And it is really the outcome of some of the efforts we have been putting in.

We added 1,400 representatives last year. Our total sales force is now about 9,600 people, six new divisions. Basically, we are doubling down on India.

And that can be seen in our key therapy areas. We are chronic focused. But if you look at respiratory, we are basically growing close to double the market growth rate.

In cardiology, again we are ahead of market growth rate. Diabetes is the one portfolio that was kind of holding us back. We actually had de-growth last year.

We are happy that it has moved to growth, but we are still under the market. Market grew at 6.5%, we grew at 4.4% but it is good to be back on growth path and we expect this momentum to continue. The effect of the additional sales force is still to be felt.