About Kiran Mazumdar-shaw
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Executive Chairperson of Biocon, announced in May 2026 that her niece, Claire Mazumdar, will succeed her as the company's leader. Mazumdar-Shaw stated that she had long planned to groom Claire for the role and decided the time had come to announce it because Claire had "earned her stripes." She cited Claire's work building Biocara Therapeutics, including raising capital, obtaining a breakthrough designation for a bispecific antibody, and listing the company on Nasdaq in 2024 as a billion-dollar company. Mazumdar-Shaw said the transition will be gradual, with Claire expected to take over in five years, and that she herself plans to step back into a guiding role rather than an active one. She also stated that family will remain at the board level while professional management drives day-to-day operations.
On the company's financial performance, Mazumdar-Shaw reported that Biocon closed FY26 on a strong note, with Q4 operating revenue at Rs. 4,517 crore, up 10% year-on-year after adjustments. She said the company is now operating as "one unified biopharma entity" with a stronger balance sheet and that the heavy capital investment phase is behind them, with the focus now on improving utilization, expanding margins, and driving return on capital employed. Mazumdar-Shaw described the outlook as "very bullish," citing new product launches, a growing pipeline, and opportunities in biosimilars and GLP-1 therapies. She also noted that the FDA's decision to waive phase three clinical trials for certain biosimilars has reduced development costs by 50% and accelerated product timelines by three to four years. Separately, Mazumdar-Shaw hosted the 25th annual St. Patrick's Day celebration in Bengaluru in her capacity as Honorary Consul General of Ireland, alongside Ireland's Ambassador to India, Kevin Kelly.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Kiran Mazumdar-shaw's recent appearances.
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✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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Interviewer0:00
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw joins us, chairperson and managing director of Biocon. Kiran, welcome back. Good morning and welcome back to ET Now. Our company has announced private equity investor True North buying 2.5% or 2.4% stake in the biologics business. Are you looking at another 2.4%? Seems small considering that you were expecting or we were expecting about a 10% stake.
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Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw0:26
Well, I'd like to start by saying that this is a stepping stone and this is the first step that we're taking towards the value creation journey that we are on in terms of our Biocon biologics business. I had shared a while ago that we would try to obtain a kind of a benchmark valuation before we go to the markets for an IPO. I think this is the first step we are taking with True North where they have actually come in at a baseline valuation of $3 billion for the biologics business. We will probably raise a little more, but I don't think there is any intention to have a huge stake sale to private equity at this stage since the objective is very different to raising capital, which we will do when we go for the IPO. So I don't understand why shareholders should be surprised at this move of ours.
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Interviewer1:41
This is one of its kind deal. When we look at valuation, it seems rich, but when we look at biologics growth, valuations are not very expensive. How would you look at valuations and potential for the biologics business?
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Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw1:53
I think you should look at similar kinds of businesses globally and see how they are being valued. If you look at our peers in other parts of the world, I think our valuation is very fair. I believe that as we go on a very robust growth trajectory, we expect that when we actually go for the IPO, you will see a much higher valuation because that's the unlocking of the value that we believe will happen when we go to the markets for the IPO.
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Interviewer2:30
Okay, does the PE investment set the stage for an eventual IPO of the subsidiary, which could be perhaps 12 to 24 months down the line?
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Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw2:41
Well, the understanding with the PE investors is that we will go for an IPO within 3 years. So that's as far as I can share with you. I'm sure it'll be sooner, but that's the plan.
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Interviewer2:59
And do you think that Biocon is getting into a phase where various catalysts are now unfolding, Kiran, particularly for the biosimilar business after a long wait?
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Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw3:10
Well, I think we have some very exciting growth opportunities ahead of us in 2020. If you look at our biologics business, Trastuzumab and Pegfilgrastim have already entered the US market. Glargine is already in non-US markets in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and we are already there in Japan. So I believe this is a very important year for us because we will have glargine hopefully entering the US market, and we also expect by FY22 we expect both Bevacizumab and probably Aspart also adding to this list. So as you can see, we are going to have a very interesting and expanding pipeline of products entering these global markets, which really gives us the confidence that we can actually hit the billion-dollar target that we've talked about by FY22.
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Interviewer4:14
What about the increasing acceptance of cost-effective biosimilars in the US? Is that one of the key triggers for growth?
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Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw4:21
Well, certainly. I think given the spiraling healthcare costs, biosimilars are the need of the day. I think you are seeing greater acceptance of biosimilars both in the US and other global markets. We keep focusing on the US, of course, which is the largest opportunity for us, but emerging markets have also played out to be a very important growth market for us as well. Going forward, China is going to be a very important market adding to this list.
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Interviewer4:58
Now the run rate currently for biosimilars is quite low as compared to the target of a billion dollars by 2022-23, so what is the strategy in place that could help you reach that level over the next 12 to 18 months?
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Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw5:14
Well, you can see that our current growth rate is also very high, and we expect to continue with that kind of growth momentum. We are very confident that we can hit that number.
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Interviewer5:29
There has been news of an offer of a plan of daily insulin at 10 cents to low and middle-income countries. How do you plan to cut prices, and do you think this plan will be commercially viable?
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Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw5:43
You know, I think you should understand that even currently, when we go in for tenders in many of these emerging markets, we are at these kinds of levels. So it's nothing new in that sense. But I think we wanted to bring a spotlight on this because I think this is a very big opportunity for Biocon now that we have the kind of capacities in place. That's why we're making the statement saying we will be able to very comfortably offer this kind of price point for recombinant human insulin in many of these emerging and developing markets.
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Interviewer6:27
Okay, thank you so much for joining in and sharing with us your strategy.
