 "Piramal Pharma")
Piramal Pharma Chairperson Nandini Piramal on Thursday said that a rebound in US biopharma funding could provide impetus to increased orders and growth going forward, after the company saw a drop in revenue from operations for the September quarter of 2025–26 (Q2FY26).
“There has been a lot of uncertainty in terms of biopharma funding, but some of that seems to be resolving. We have now seen an uptick in biopharma funding in both September and October overall,” she said.
Piramal added that this activity is giving a little more confidence to the sector, and any funding improvement will translate into revenues next year or the year after.
“We are seeing an increase in requests for proposals (RFPs) and requests for quotations (RFQs), especially for our onshore manufacturing facilities and our differentiated capabilities,” she told reporters at a virtual press briefing.
This comes even as the company, in its investor presentation, stated that inconsistent recovery in US biopharma funding, along with uncertainties in global trade policies, led to an adverse impact on order inflows and customer decision-making during the first half (H1) of FY26.
The drugmaker’s revenues were dragged down by 9 per cent in Q2FY26, with its contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) business seeing a 21 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) drop due to inventory destocking by a customer in one large CDMO order.
Piramal said it does not expect any orders from this client for the financial year but described the pause as temporary.
Consequently, the company reported a net loss of Rs 99 crore for the quarter, compared to a profit of Rs 23 crore in the corresponding period last year.
Similarly, its Ebitda margin shrank to 11 per cent from 18 per cent in this quarter.
Commenting on capacity expansion, Piramal said that the firm has made proactive development investments in its US facilities.
The company is continuing its previously announced capacity expansion in two US facilities — at Lexington, Kentucky, and Riverview, Michigan — for which it had earlier announced a $90-million investment.
It is also going ahead with its multi-million-dollar joint investment with NewAmsterdam Pharma to provide commercial capacity for fixed-dose combinations (FDCs) at its site in Sellersville, Pennsylvania.
“Three sites in the US actually do have capacity at the moment. Our plan overall is to use that capacity and possibly trigger other expansions,” she added.
Piramal told Business Standard that the firm may not undertake manufacturing in markets such as Latin America (LatAm) or Africa, adding that it will continue to explore new markets.
On Thursday, Piramal Pharma’s shares went down marginally by 0.6 per cent, ending the day’s trade at Rs 199.30 apiece on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
