The family-controlled Piramal Healthcare is seeing a generational change with the promotion of 31-year-old Nandini Piramal, the elder scion of promoters Ajay and Swati Piramal, to run the over-the-counter (OTC) business of the pharmaceutical company. The inheritor has declared an ambition for the company to join the top 5 in the OTC segment that involves medicines that can be sold without prescription.
The OTC segment of Piramal Healthcare is expected to grow by 30% in the current year from the 2009-10 sales level of Rs125 crore.
"In the next three years we want to reach Rs1,000 crore revenue by growing organically and inorganically," Nandini Piramal told Hindustan Times.
"We know it's an ambitious target, but the only failure is to set the bar too low," she said.
A management graduate from Stanford in the US, Nandini was inducted as executive director in 2008 and then groomed later through her appointment as general manager- strategic marketing.
At present, Piramal Healthcare ranks ninth in India in the aggressively competitive industry that has names such as Ranbaxy, Dabur, Emami, Reckitt Benckiser and GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals to reckon with in the OTC space. After selling off its domestic formulations business for $3.7 billion to Abbott Labarotaries last year, Piramal Healthcare is focusing on its OTC brands such as Saridon, Lacto-Calamine, I- Pill and Supractive in its portfolio.
"We are looking at acquisitions but they have to come at right price and they have to fit in our product portfolio," said Piramal.
{{/usCountry}}"We are looking at acquisitions but they have to come at right price and they have to fit in our product portfolio," said Piramal.
{{/usCountry}}The company acquired I-pill brand from Cipla in march 2010 but lost the race to acquire Ahmedabad based Paras Pharmaceuticals that ultimately went to Reckit Beckinser.