- Biocon founder says they have a full manufacturing base for GLP-1 drugs, unlike rivals relying on China
- Manufacturing issues at US competitors have strengthened Biocon’s market position
- Biocon’s insulin business aims to grow from $300 million to $1 billion with capacity doubling
Biocon has built an end-to-end manufacturing base for GLP-1 drugs that sets it apart from rivals dependent on China for key starting materials, founder and executive chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said in an exclusive interview to NDTV Profit.
"For us GLP-1s have always been about a global opportunity," Mazumdar-Shaw said, pointing to the company's liraglutide presence in both the US and Europe.
Mazumdar-Shaw reasoned that manufacturing setbacks at competing US suppliers had strengthened Biocon's position. "Biocon's capability in peptides and insulins have made them very very strong when it comes to GLP-1 as well," she said, adding that the company sees itself as "a fully end-to-end company manufacturing GLP-1s."
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"Many of our competitors rely very much on key starting materials from China. We don't," she said. "So I think that kind of sets us apart." She credited the company's ability to produce these molecules through recombinant DNA technology as a further advantage.
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Insulin Business Targets $1 Billion Mark
Mazumdar-Shaw pushed back on the perception that insulin is a weak spot in the portfolio because of thinner margins. Asked how the $300-million-plus insulin business would scale to $1 billion, she said doubled manufacturing capacity would show results in the near term. "If you were just to double the 300 million because of that you can see where the business is heading in the near term," she said.
She argued that insulin majors shifting focus and capacity towards GLP-1 has left a supply gap that Biocon is positioned to fill. "Insulin will never go away," she said, citing the fungible nature of manufacturing infrastructure that can be shared between insulin and GLP-1 production using the same drug product facilities and recombinant DNA technology.
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