Special Feature on     

Published: Mar 31, 2023
Updated: Mar 31, 2023

RPG Life Sciences

Cutting-edge strategies for growth

RPG Life Sciences is an over five-decade-old pharma company that started as a joint venture with GD Searle of the US. With Searle exiting India, the company got rechristened as RPG Life Sciences, inheriting iconic/text-book brands, as well as R&D/manufacturing/regulatory infrastructure, processes and equity. It is amongst the few mid-size pharma companies that are well-represented in all three segments — domestic formulations, international formulations and APIs – and having the manufacturing infrastructure, organization structure, experience and skill set of an evolved organization with strong front-end and back-end capabilities.

Indian pharma is a structural growth story being driven by wide-ranging demographic, economic, geographic and infra-structural factors that are likely to sustain over years. The overall strategy of the company is to have a big share of the India pie opportunity. We aim to have consistent profitable business growth, leveraging all three business segments — with top priority to domestic formulations that contribute to two-thirds of the overall business.

The strategy for domestic formulations is built around five pillars, namely:

• Product Portfolio Rejuvenation by building chronic and speciality portfolios with new launches
• Strategic Brand Asset Building through life cycle management by launching new line extensions
• Deepening Customer Coverage in targeted therapies by expanding field force and deploying digital
• Augmenting Salesforce Effectiveness by competencies building and productivity enhancement initiatives
• Improving Profitability by Opex control, product re-engineering, efficient manufacturing operations, and ensuring business hygiene.

The strategy for our international business - both API and Formulations — is stepwise profitable business buildup via carefully curated pillars and a well-defined roadmap

• Augment and expand our strong niche -- immunosuppressant portfolio
• Build product-pipeline with a specific competitive advantage and low competitive intensity
• Expand footprints in both emerging and regulated markets
• Invest in building state-of-art manufacturing/R&D infrastructure

‘DOCTOR SUPPORT’

Innovation and digitalization form the cornerstone of our transformation agenda. A slew of initiatives across the front-end and back-end have been launched. One such initiative is RPGServ, a unique digital platform for comprehensive doctors’ engagement that integrates physical and digital capabilities (Phygital) to provide an industry-first ‘Anytime, Anywhere Doctor Support Initiative’ multiplying our customer access and Share of Voice.

RPG is perhaps the only corporate globally which has adopted ‘Happiness’ as its theme. We have devised a comprehensive Happiness framework, formed a Happiness council, launched a host of well-crafted initiatives, included them in Managers’ KRAs, and measure them diligently.

Backed by a well-conceptualized Transformation agenda devised and being diligently executed by a 1,500-strong team for the last 3 years, RPG Life Sciences has emerged today as a benchmark mid-size pharma company with revenue growth significantly and consistently higher than the market. All 3 segments are growing in healthy double digits, profitability and profits have grown manifold, and the company has become debt-free and is generating healthy positive cash flows, having reached either the top or amongst the top 3 comparable companies in key financial ratios -- all eventually reflecting in our market cap leapfrogging by 5-6 times, significantly ahead of the BSE Healthcare Index growth.

GLOBAL AMBITIONS

Apart from serving the domestic market, the company is continuously exploring new geographies. The company currently has several tie-ups with international partners in order to take its products across the globe. Moreover, the company is always on the look-out for win-win licensing and outsourcing agreements.

RPG Life Sciences has of late entered the skin care segment in technical collaboration with a leading Italian research-oriented firm and the company has started marketing the products pan-India.

According to the company “our growth plans are to establish a balance between domestic and international business. In domestic business, the focus is on expanding the existing portfolio, in-licence niche opportunities and organic growth opportunities. Internationally. The company would like to leverage its pipeline and also thirdparty R&D pipelines, geographically focus on expanding Europe and rest of the world, and focus on its US strategy to strengthen the performance of the company." The sky is surely the limit for RPG Life Sciences.