After patient nurturing over two decades, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries' Reliance Life Sciences (RLS) is investing in a new plant and looking to enter new segments. In this BT Visual Story, watch Business Today Magazine decode why the biotechnology player could well be the next big thing from the Reliance stable
Incorporated in 2001, Reliance Life Sciences has patiently nurtured its research and manufacturing capacity to become an end-to-end player, diversified its presence across segments, and now boasts of a portfolio of 43 products, and a workforce of 1,300. Thanks to this, it has outgrown its current 20-acre campus in Navi Mumbai, necessitating the Dindori project, for which it has earmarked Rs 4,400 crore—half of that amount is set to be utilised in the first phase
Reliance Life Sciences' President K.V. Subramaniam told BT Magazine, “This is a larger commercial scale facility for manufacturing plasma proteins, biosimilars, small molecule oncology products, and vaccines. In phase II, there will also be commercial scale manufacturing facilities for gene therapy and mRNA products.” A biosimilar is a biological medicine that is highly similar to another that has already been approved by regulators
With the fully integrated second manufacturing campus coming up in Dindori, and a host of ambitious plans to go with it, the Reliance Life Sciences outlook is understandably buoyant. The buoyant mood is underpinned by a business that has been grown patiently and that is coming of age now. It has been nurtured with some basic guidelines that reflect the ethos of the group as a whole
“Reliance Life Sciences, while continuing to strengthen the foundation it has created in medical biotechnology products, has taken up several novel initiatives in vaccines, peptides, gene and cell therapies, mRNA and oligonucleotides. In the process, it would be graduating its profile from making life-saving drugs mostly to treat patients in intensive and critical care in hospitals to addressing unmet medical needs in rare genetic diseases and disorders,” Mukesh Ambani told Business Today
According to KV Subramaniam, 65, a three-decade veteran of the group, RLS, predominantly, has a play in medical biotechnology-based products and services. “Most of the products we make are used in critical and intensive care in hospitals. You will not find our products in chemist shops,” he explains. “Biotechnology is where we chose to be,” said Subramaniam, adding that it is an area with very good business potential, but for every success there are, quite literally, hundreds of failures
In terms of numbers, Reliance Life Sciences' revenues have zoomed 25% on an annualised basis over the last five years, Subramaniam pointed out, while Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) has jumped 42%. The revenue for FY23 was around Rs 2,400 crore or about $300 million, “with a valuation of $2 billion”
Reliance Life Sciences has a portfolio of 43 products across segments, which are prescribed by specialists and super-specialists. They are exported to over 50 countries (making up 38% of revenues)—including highly regulated markets like the US and Europe, primarily for small molecules. “Our approach has been to develop products and take it wherever there is a market, as opposed to making it specifically for, say, oncology, cardiology and nephrology," said Subramaniam
According to CEO Vinay Ranade, for over eight to 10 years Reliance Life Sciences grappled with getting its products right. “We would ask ourselves if we could develop it well. Now, we are confident about the manufacturing and controls aspects. You must be open and flexible to make improvements as you go.” Those patient efforts are poised to help the company as the industry it is in looks to be at the cusp of a growth spurt
Globally, per research studies, pharmaceuticals is a $1.5-trillion market and growing by 4%, while biopharmaceuticals is a $120-billion market, but growing twice as fast as pharmaceuticals. The Indian biopharmaceuticals market is a fraction of that at $300 million but growing at 25%. The uniqueness of the RLS model is that it has chosen to diversify across segments, though that means it has to contend with rivals
“There are a few companies in gene therapy," KV Subramaniam told BT, adding that it is equally important to make the products affordable. He said, "Take gene therapy for instance. The pricing in the western world is between $0.5 million to as much as $3–4 million. We want to bring down costs substantially and are working aggressively to deliver gene therapies in a very cost-competitive manner.”
RLS is now looking to strengthen the existing areas of businesses, while scouting for new opportunities. Venkata Ramana, the company’s Chief Scientific Officer, said, "The uniqueness of RLS’s model is that it is end-to-end. Starting from research to manufacturing, we are present across the value chain.”
With the various pieces falling into place, RLS plans to enter the US biosimilars market later this year. The long-term vision is to create a diverse and deep biotech company. “With our breadth and depth of products, we must be able to make a difference to lives at an affordable cost,” said Subramaniam. For a group that has made a mark in almost every business it has entered, biotechnology could well be the next frontier