The company is aiming to double its revenues to $2 billion by 2029-30, Piramal told Mint in a post-results interview.
The Mumbai-based firm plans to spend $100-125 million in 2025 on capacity expansion. “…but even to reach our 2029-30 goals, we will have to continue to spend on capex…obviously, there is maintenance and compliance capex, but we will continue to spend on de-bottlenecking and increasing capacities where needed,” Piramal said.
The company on Monday reported a 1% year-on-year decline in its June-quarter revenue at ₹1,934 crore, missing the Bloomberg estimate of ₹2,047 crore based on a poll of seven brokerages.
Its Ebitda fell 26% to ₹165 crore, with Ebitda margin contracting to 9% compared to 11% in Q1FY25. Ebitda is short for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
Its net loss stood at ₹82 crore, down 8% on-year.
The Saridon maker said the revenue was impacted by the destocking of one of its largest CDMO (Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization) products. It anticipated 2025-26 growth to remain muted due to this and funding uncertainty for biotechs in the US.
“What we’re quite pleased at is that if you take away the de-stocking event, we’ve grown at mid-teens, and we’ve also seen a more balanced growth in our overseas sites,” Piramal said, adding that the second half of the fiscal year is expected to be stronger.
The company anticipates mid-single-digit revenue growth, mid-teens Ebitda growth, and an improvement in profitability in 2025-26, said Piramal. The firm expects a recovery in 2026-27, Piramal had told Mint in an earlier conversation.
CDMO ramp-up
In the first three months of 2025-26, Piramal Pharma commenced expansion of two of its US facilities, Lexington, Kentucky, and Riverview, Michigan, for which it had previously announced a $90 million investment.
The company has 15 global CDMO facilities, with four in North America, two in the UK and nine in India.
Piramal’s focus on capacity expansion comes as interest in Indian CDMOs, especially those with niche and differentiated capabilities, grows.
As global pharma innovators and biotechs look at derisking their operations and shifting supply chains away from China, Indian firms are poised to grab a large share of this lucrative business.
While companies, including Piramal, have seen an increase in requests for proposals (RFPs), indicating growing interest, the switch to actual clients is still slow.
Piramal told Mint earlier that customers were pausing decision-making. Domestic factors in the US, like tax and interest rates and FDA funding cuts, were also slowing down biotech recovery.
Export-focused CDMO peers such as Divi’s Laboratories, Sai Life Sciences, and Syngene International are also aggressively ramping up capacities.
Piramal is banking on its differentiated offerings for growth. Its Lexington and Riverview expansions will play a vital role in the development and manufacturing of antibody-drug conjugates (ADC).
ADCs are a type of cancer therapy designed to deliver chemotherapy directly to cells, and have seen huge interest from innovators over the last few years.
Piramal’s differentiated products, including ADCs, sterile fill finish, payload link, high-potent APIs, and on-patent commercial product development, have been growing faster than the rest of the business, and “will be the driver going forward”, said Piramal.
The company is not exploring inorganic growth for its CDMO business yet.
“We would do licensing and brand acquisitions in the complex hospital generics business or the consumer healthcare business. I think those are the most likely candidates for acquisitions rather than more facilities and new capabilities,” said Piramal.
Piramal Pharma’s stock price dipped over 3% to ₹196.8 per share on Tuesday morning on National Stock Exchange before settling at ₹206.03, up 0.82% at market close.
