Ajanta Pharma plans big US push

Ajanta Pharma, one of the fastest growing and leading mid-sized Indian drug companies, is planning a mega push into the US drug market.

Ajanta has commercialized 18 products in the past few years and 18 other products are under approval. The company is planning to file 10-12 products during the current year and similar filings every year in future, said Yogesh Agrawal, managing director of the company.

Of the Rs 1434 crore overall revenues from exports in FY18, the USA contributed Rs 194 crore for Ajanta with a five per cent growth over the previous year.

"We have constructed a new USFDA approved facility at Dahej in Gujarat and have three formulation facilities in Aurangabad, of which one is USFDA approved. We spent 9 per cent (Rs186 crore) last year alone on research and development, which is one among the highest R&D spend rate in the industry," Agrawal said.

Now Ajanta has a team of 850 scientists and a new building is under construction to house the R&D team. "In the last five years, we invested Rs 1500 years to create infrastructure and this was mostly done from the cash generated," he added.

During the last decade, Yogesh Agrawal and his younger brother Rajesh Agrawal have scaled up the company from Rs 309 crore to Rs 2131 crore, mainly by tapping the African market.

Ajanta had a five year compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15 per cent in the past five years in consolidated total income, which grew from Rs 1230 core in FY 2014 to Rs 2155 crore in FY 2018. Profit After Tax (PAT) also grew at a CAGR of 19 per cent during the period to Rs. 469 crore. For the first quarter of FY2019, sales were up by 8 per cent to Rs. 511 crore and PAT grew by 12 per cent to Rs 106 crore.

Yogesh Agrawal says Africa is the biggest market for Ajanta. Its branded generic business grew 30 per cent in last financial year to Rs 355 crore. However, institutional sales in the region fell by 13 per cent to Rs 384 crore.  The company has 1383 product registrations in that market and is the 4th largest company in terms of sales in the Franco-African market (French speaking African countries).  Ajanta is specialized in segments like anti-malaria, cardio, ophthalmology, multivitamins, antibiotics, gynecology, pain management etc.

In the domestic market, the company had sales of Rs 629 crore in FY18, with a marginal growth of 2 per cent. Indian sales are mainly driven by cardiology products, which contribute 41 per cent of India sales. Ajanta is ranked 32nd in the Indian Pharmaceutical Market and is the third largest seller of ophthalmic products, according to a March 2018 data from drug sales tracking agency IMS-MAT. The company sells nearly 270 products through 3000 plus sales representatives in the Indian market.