Don’t see opportunity for Paxlovid in EMs; no visibility on market size for Molnupiravir: Laurus Labs

He said, "Paxlovid is a very effective drug when compared to Molnupiravir to treat COVID virus. The number of cases in Asia, leaving China, is declining significantly; in Africa also, this is not a major concern anymore so we don't see a great opportunity in the emerging market as of now. Since we have license, we are gearing up to develop and be ready for any opportunity that is available to us."

He added, "As of now, it will take 3-4 months for us to develop and file for regulatory approvals. So then only we can tell you how much opportunity we have in front of us. It's too early to comment."

On the high raw material prices, he said that the company has been able to manage the impact better than the industry. However, he sees challenges in passing down input costs. He added that the company will be able to maintain its EBITDA at current levels.

Chava said, “Because of our scale, we are able to manage the impact much better than many other companies. The challenge came, especially the solvents where the petro-driven solvent prices went up significantly, and also some logistics challenges kept coming from China; we have some impact, but we are managing it very well.”

On growth, he said that he sees growth in all divisions. He mentioned that the antiretroviral sales had seen some challenges, however, there is good traction now.

"The current year in FY22, we had challenges in antiretroviral API sales. That is behind us. Now we have seen good traction and Q4 is better and Q1 FY23 onwards, we see normal API sales. We got new approvals in formulations, we are expanding geographies for formulations. So we will see growth in all divisions in FY23."

The company is currently gearing up to produce and supply quantities to Global Life Science company. However, Chava said that he won’t be able to comment on the quantum or the order.

"We are gearing up to produce larger quantities from the coming quarters. We are well prepared to deliver what we promised to our partner. I can't comment on the quantum right now."