Biocon’s Rs 4,500 crore QIP to help retire debt, fuel new launches, says CEO Sidharth Mittal

Beyond financial restructuring, Biocon is banking on a wave of new product launches to drive its topline growth.

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26 Aug, 2025 12:21

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Leading biopharma major Biocon said it expects its recently-concluded Rs 4,500 crore Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) to help retire substantial liabilities while simultaneously push a robust pipeline of new products, Managing Director and CEO Siddharth Mittal told Moneycontrol on June 23.

Biocon’s debt profile has been under investor scrutiny after a strategic acquisition of Viatris Inc's biosimilars business for roughly $3.3 billion in 2022. This deal, while transformative for Biocon Biologics, had significantly increased the company's leverage.

“We have a structured debt obligation of roughly $550 million. This is in addition to the existing $1.2 billion is a bank debt and bond debt,” Mittal said on the debt profile. “This QIP will essentially retire all those (structure debt) obligations which goes up to March 2026,” Mittal added. The immediate benefit of this debt retirement will be a noticeable improvement in the company's financial metrics, the CEO said. Read More

“From next year you will see the interest cost come down,” said Biocon MD and CEO, pegging the reduction to be almost 8-9% of interest savings, which will have “a direct bearing on the bottom line and also the margins.”

Despite the current debt, Siddharth Mittal expressed confidence in the company's ability to manage its obligations as business expands. The majority of the remaining debt is of longer duration, with $800 million bond repayable in 2029. “A majority of the debt comes up for repayment in 2028-29. As the business grows and the free cash flows improve, we are comfortable (of repayment) ," said the CEO.

Growth Drivers

Beyond financial restructuring, Biocon is banking on a wave of new product launches to drive its topline growth. For the current fiscal year, Siddharth Mittal highlighted critical additions to the biosimilars portfolio. “There are three new important launches coming up this year. One is ustekinumab (used against autoimmunune diseases) which we already launched. Bevacizumab (anti-cancer), which we are going to launch very soon, and then Insulin Aspart (against diabetes) where we are expecting an approval. These, combined with our current products in the US continue to gain market share, and expansion into new markets, new product combination, combined effect of all three will drive the growth in this fiscal year and coming years,” said the CEO.

Read More: Biocon, Wockhardt, Eris to double insulin output, as global drugmakers scale back to focus on GLP-1, new generation insulins

In the generics segment, the company is focused on the expanding anti-diabetes and weight loss GLP-1 market, especially with upcoming patent expiries. “The main growth drivers is where our focus has been in the last couple of years which has been GLPs,” Mittal added. He also mentioned Liraglutide, already approved by the European Medicines Agency, and said Biocon is awaiting USFDA feedback on its US filing. Another product, Copaxone, is also awaiting USFDA’s approval. For Semaglutide, patents are expiring in key markets like Brazil and Canada before the US and Europe, where Biocon is poised to enter. “Our product is in the advanced stages of development and will be finding soon in these markets,” he confirmed, with launches expected to contribute by ‘no later than calendar 2027’.

A significant competitive advantage for Biocon in the GLP-1 space is its vertical integration. “We are vertically integrated on drug substance, drug product and the device. So that's why we feel that we are very well-placed,” Mittal said/ The company has invested ‘roughly over $100 million’ in expanding its Bengaluru-based GLP-1 manufacturing facilities.

Mittal also addressed the shifting dynamics in the human insulin market. With innovators increasingly focusing on GLP-1s, Biocon sees a ‘huge tailwind’ as these innovators focus away from insulin to GLPs. The company said it is expanding its Malaysian insulin production facility to capitalize on this opportunity, affirming that human insulin ‘cannot fade away’ in the immediate term, given its requirements to treat Type 1 diabetics and the role of the drug in delaying insulinization for Type 2 patients.