Drug maker Piramal Enterprises is looking to more than double revenue of its overthe-counter pharmaceutical business to Rs 1,000 crore by 2020 as it expects to benefit from the changing demography of India where rising disposable income and growing health consciousness is set to increase consumer spending on healthcare.
The Mumbai-based company is on an acquisition spree and has snapped key brands from global rivals Pfizer and MSD in the last one year for a total of Rs 200 crore. There are also reports that Piramal is in talks with other companies such as Dr Morepen to buy their brands.
“When we started, the OTC business was Rs 65 crore. Some months we were barely touching Rs 5 crore, but here we are,” Nandini Piramal, executive director at Enterprises said.
She said the Rs 1,000-crore target may seem a formidable task, considering the present revenue of the OTC segment is around Rs 393 crore, but that she is confident of achieving the goal. She said India’s changing demography makes the group’s OTC business even more exciting.
Though the Piramal scion refused comment on individual deals, she said its OTC business was here to stay and so was the group’s acquisition strategy
. “I love buying brands. You get the IP, you get the brand loyalty and you do not get infrastructure. We have the own network that we can use,” she said.Taking a cue from rivals such as Dabur and newer entrant Patanjali Ayurved, Piramal is now experimenting with its products. It recently launched pan flavour antacids to make its legacy brands more appealing.
Piramal Enterprises set up the OTC business in 2008 when it sold its pharma business to US drug maker Abbott for Rs 18,000 crore. That was the time when the family’s Gen X took charge of the group’s business.
Piramal said although the pharma business was sold out, the ethos of building a successful pharma empire were now being used in her consumer care business. “We have been growing organically around 16% in healthcare,” she said.
“So, as a group, that’s been our strategy, buying legacy brands and taking them over from companies who have not been able to give them attention for whatever reasons, and we have been able to make them grow.”
