Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Executive Chairperson of Biocon, joins NDTV Profit to share her vision for India’s pharma future. In this exclusive conversation, she talks about Biocon’s game-changing merger, the global GLP-1 opportunity, and why India is poised to lead in affordable innovation and cutting-edge research.
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Questions asked in this interview
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2:07What does this mean and how will it benefit the company?
3:39... back on 2025, of course many milestones for the company itself, but as a leader, industry leader in the healthcare space, how do you see this particular year for the entire sector and what were the key highlights that came across for you?
6:08How do you see this developing and the key aspects that you're watching out for in 2026?
8:21But when you look at Biocon going forward, how is the positioning of Biocon that you would like to see in the world?
10:29How's Biocon positioned in the global GLP-1 race?
12:11So you're uniquely placed for GLP-1 but how meaningful will this be in a near term of say 3 to 5 years Kiran as compared to biosimilars, your GLP-1 push?
13:44... about Biocon after the 4,500 crore rupees of QIP, do you think now this equity dilution for now is sufficient, how long is it going to last and what's your comfortable debt EBITDA levels that you are looking at post the integration?
Let's get chatting with Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, who's the executive chairperson of Biocon. Kiran, always a pleasure to welcome you on NDTV Profit. Now, as we wind down on this particular year, Kiran, this has been a remarkable year with many many milestones that have been achieved which have been in the works for many years for you personally and your ambition in the company Biocon. So first of all I would like to ask you with this merger, Biologics, Biocon as a combined force, what it means for you in the journey for the company.
And let me start by saying yes, this has been a very very eventful year for us and I think the recent announcement that we made of the intended merger between BBL and Biocon is indeed a big announcement because I believe that this actually unlocks and creates the value that we have been witnessing in terms of our biosimilars business and as well as the GLP-1 opportunity ahead. We felt that by combining the two businesses actually we would unlock a lot of shareholder value for Biocon as a conglomerate. And we believe that this creates a bigger company, a much more diversified entity and a simpler and elegant model which actually then helps us to focus on really leveraging the opportunity that we have of being uniquely positioned to combine both insulins and GLP-1s, the insulin biosimilars and the generic GLP-1s. So I think this is a big opportunity for us now to drive big value and I think this benefits all stakeholders.
That's right and it's a big big development and from next year onwards the stakeholders, shareholders in the company will start seeing the benefit of the combined force. And Kiran, I know for sure that it has been in the works for several years putting all the pieces together. Now before we go to a much larger conversation and big picture outlook for 2026, I wanted to ask you about one news development which is about securing the global manufacturing and commercial rights for Julphar. What does this mean and how will it benefit the company?
Well, you know, Julphar was an asset where we had a transfer pricing, profit sharing arrangement, etc. And I think once we basically got the whole business, as we have just discussed, we believed that it was important for the biosimilars business to be actually capturing the entire value. So from that point of view we believe this is a big deal and it now brings the asset under our full control. We believe we can get higher margins by doing this and we also believe that we will be able to unlock significant growth opportunities having this advantage in terms of both cost efficiency and the kind of opportunities that we have ahead in terms of adalimumab.
Right, so this is also going to be a much larger play than what you had a commercial tie-up with. So that's really extending the benefits that could come out of it. But Kiran, as you look back on 2025, of course many milestones for the company itself, but as a leader, industry leader in the healthcare space, how do you see this particular year for the entire sector and what were the key highlights that came across for you?
So Nisha, to me the biggest highlight was the announcement of ANRF. I think this has been a very important step taken by the government to basically focus on IP-driven economic growth through research and innovation and I think this is really going to help us all big time in every sector, especially even in the pharmaceutical sector. Added to this of course is the RDI which helps the pharma sector particularly because I think a lot of companies are beginning to invest in research and innovation that will drive even greater value. As you know, up until now we've been really focusing on biosimilars and generics which of course are very important growth drivers for the pharma sector. But going ahead, can we actually focus on innovative drugs and create even greater value is the opportunity we are looking at. In addition to that, I think we are also seeing the emergence of affordable innovation across the world and I think India can lead in that even in cell and gene therapy which is such a big challenge for the world to access. I think India has taken the lead in delivering affordable access to even CAR-T therapies and gene therapies hopefully in the future. I think there's also a very strong focus on ADCs and RNA technologies and synthetic biology. So a very very interesting 2025 where companies have really focused on these emerging areas. ANRF is going to focus on critical technologies and I think this is going to augur well for the entire sector and especially for companies like Biocon that has always believed in a research-driven approach and an innovation-driven approach to its business.
That's right. In fact, Kiran, it's been several years that we have been chatting about how India can make that shift from generic leadership to innovation leadership. For the next year, that is a much shorter time period. How do you see this developing and the key aspects that you're watching out for in 2026?
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