Patel Bets On Next-level Patient Care

CAN PATIENT CENTRICITY make business sense for a pharmaceutical company in India where medicine sales are driven by doctor prescriptions and retail trade? Yes, it does, says 46-year-old Sharvil P. Patel, managing director of Ahmedabad-based Zydus Lifesciences Ltd.

Being patient centric is not only a business strategy but also the way forward, at least for his company, says Patel, the third-generation entrepreneur who assumed leadership of the company in 2017. Revenue and profit numbers back his view. Zydus achieved highest ever operating profit and margins on gross sales of ₹19,022 crore in FY24. Net profits grew 96.88% from ₹1,960 crore to ₹3,860 crore. Both U.S. and India, with over 40% share of consolidated revenues each, contributed to the growth.

“Ever since we rechristened ourselves as Zydus Lifesciences (it was known as Cadila Healthcare Ltd. till February 2022), our focus has been on serving unmet needs of patients, becoming more patient centric and ensuring access to medicines. A lot of those things have started to play out in the last three years,” says Patel.

Patient centricity, he explains, means having an innovative portfolio and offering end-to-end value play to the patient. Breadth of products within a disease category covering the entire cycle of the patient’s journey makes the company’s products a compelling choice for medical professionals and other key stakeholders.

“Our job is not just to make medicines but show outcomes. We are trying to be with patients through their journey to make sure they have the right cure and stay on remission path for a longer period,” says Patel. In oncology, for instance, Zydus not only develops and sells cancer medicines, it has also started doing liquid biopsy through a partnership. “Such products and services improve patient care, doctor-patient relationship and patient outcomes,” he says.

Zydus is the number one oncology player in India. “We are the strongest in breast cancer. For any solid tumour, Zydus has one of the widest portfolios of products for Indian patients,” says Patel, who holds a doctorate for his work on breast cancer at Johns Hopkins, Bayview Medical Centre, U.S.

The company focuses on seven-eight specialities, including cardio, diabetic, respiratory, oncology and nephrology. It wants to replicate the oncology model in all key areas. “We want to not just work on medicines but the whole journey the patient goes through right from diagnosis (a big challenge in India) to making sure the right treatment is offered at the right price to following through with the patient during the remission period. We are doing that in oncology. We hope to do similar things in nephrology now. The future will be a lot about being connected and using technology to monitor health. We want to be the go-to company for complete solutions.”

The approach has seen Zydus researching, developing, manufacturing and marketing a wide range of active pharmaceutical ingredients, formulations, biotech drugs and vaccines. Its consumer health subsidiary, Zydus Wellness, which owns brands such as Sugar Free, Glucon-D, Complan, Nutralite and Nycil, is also on a growth path.

How does Patel’s “patient centric” strategy work in U.S? “India is highly evolved. Our established products continue to do well. We have a whole portfolio of innovative medicines, new chemical entities to biosimilars to vaccines. We do Day 1 generic launches here. India is far more evolved in terms of portfolio of products. We are trying to replicate this in U.S. This means having a breadth of portfolio, Day 1 and important launches, complex generics and focus on orphan and rare diseases,” he says.

In FY24, Zydus filed 20 ANDAs (generic drug approval applications), received approval for 46 new products, including five tentative, and launched 29 new products in U.S. “Our priority is to create access through affordable generics and that is what we continue to do in U.S. We have a large pipeline of 300-plus molecules we sell in U.S. We have 400-plus filings. Every year we file new ANDAs in U.S.,” says Patel.

The U.S. strategy thus includes launch of complex generics, difficult to do generics and volume generating generics. Then come the rare diseases. “We are interested in building the pediatric rare disease portfolio. We have three molecules there; two have been commercialised,” says Patel. Zydus’ own molecule, Saroglitazar (already launched in India), is undergoing Phase-III clinical trials for an orphan indication (for PBC or Primary Biliary Cholangitis) in U.S. Another, Usnoflast, has completed Phase II trials for ALS or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, an illness with median survival of two years that affects approximately 5,000 people in U.S. every year (hence considered a rare or orphan disease). “We want to build an innovative speciality business in U.S. to build a more sustainable and scalable business in U.S.,” says Patel.

Patel says his company has three legs of growth–India, U.S. and international (excluding U.S.). “It is in the scale-up phase right now. It is harder but we are succeeding slowly,” he says. The international business of Zydus (the company is present in over 55 countries) is focused on core products in therapeutic areas like CNS, cardiovascular, diabetes and oncology. Biosimilars, a fast-growing business for Zydus in India (but not yet in developed markets), will also find a way to other emerging markets. Zydus’ vision — to be a company that derives much of its revenue from technologically differentiated portfolio by 2030 — is rooted in science. Biologics will form a very integral part of the company’s future strategy. So will tools and technologies like liquid biopsies, connected devices and medical devices that are fast becoming central to ‘patient centric’ care.

What is certain is Patel’s resolve: “We have to move beyond the pill.”