Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw On Claire Mazumdar & Biocon’s Future

So, first and foremost, I think this has been a burning question from the markets, from investors, from all stakeholders to know who is going to take over the reins from me. And succession planning is always a very, very crucial part to ensure that there is good business leadership in terms of continuity of the vision and the strategic intent. And I have been thinking about succession planning for a long time, as you can imagine. And I have been grooming Claire as my successor for some time yet, and I thought this is the time to basically now announce it because I think Claire is someone who is very worthy of succeeding me because she has actually proved to me that she is capable of building a company. She's capable of managing risk. And she's capable of very good networking with all stakeholders as she has built a successful company. Biocara was a company that Biocon founded way back in 2018 when we took one of our assets into the clinic in the US. And I handed over this company to her a year later and requested her to build it because I could not handle it remotely in a very efficient way. And I think what she's done in this very short time is quite amazing because she has raised a huge amount of capital. She has basically built a great team. She has had clinical success. She has obtained a breakthrough designation for the molecule. And she has listed the company on Nasdaq in 2024 in a very successful manner. It was a billion-dollar company on the first day of listing. And it continues to exceed the billion-dollar valuation even today. And I think if I look at my own journey, there are lots of similarities because Biocon too listed as a billion-dollar company on the first day of listing. We have also taken big risks. And I think she shares my philosophy of making sure that our products make a huge difference and provide life-saving therapeutic interventions for patients who need them. And having watched me build Biocon at very close quarters, she understands my ethos, my strategy, and my need to basically build Biocon as this very differentiated company.

Well, you know, I hope I can step back and just basically be a sort of a guiding figure rather than an active figure. So, that's the way I look at my role.

You know, Neetu, we've always said that the biosimilar opportunity is huge. And the fact that we have invested in this way ahead of others is because we saw this as a very large opportunity. You know, there's going to be $300 billion worth of biosimilars who are going to lose patent protection over the next 10 years. That's a large sizeable market to address. And to compete in the biosimilars business, you need a pipeline, you need scale in terms of both R&D and manufacturing, and you of course need a very strong commercial engine. And I think Biocon has all of that. And that's what makes us very, very differentiated and very successful.

So, first and foremost, I think Biocon has a very strong early mover advantage. We also have one of the largest pipelines and portfolios. And I think the fact that we've had now a very long experience, almost a decade long experience, a little less than a decade long experience in the market for biosimilars puts us into a very strong competitive space, right? And we have that competitive advantage because people know our products, people know our offerings, people know watching what we are offering next. And that makes us very competitive in that sense. Now, when it comes to what are we looking at? Obviously, we developed a pipeline. We've already said we've got a 20 strong product pipeline in the market and about to enter the market. So, that's a pipeline that will only grow. Then we have the scale. So, we are one of the few integrated biosimilar companies. And as you know, in this space you have to be integrated to really have that competitive edge. The point is we have many others who are basically getting into this space through in-licensing, outsourcing. But it is not integrated and therefore we believe Biocon is very uniquely placed. As far as the opportunities are concerned, the fact that so many people want to get into biosimilars tells you that this is a very attractive space for people and companies to look at. And that validates our strategy even more strongly.