MSN Group Bets Big On Biosimilars; Manne Forecasts IT-like Boom

We might be having over 500 different drugs. In that, 30 drugs would be for one therapy, 100 molecules will be for another therapy. Hence, if there is minimum overlapping with another company, we will be open for acquiring that company. Also, there is high potential for CDMO business in India -- Dr MSN Reddy, Founder

Hyderabad: The man on a mission to enhance accessibility of quality and affordable medicines to the world is Dr Manne Satyanarayana Reddy, well-known as Dr MSN Reddy, Founder, Chairman & Managing Director of MSN Group. A journey that started in 2003 with developing three drugs during initial years of operation, has now reached 530. The pharma major is developing and launching 30-40 drugs into different countries every year.

“During graduation itself, I had this idea of establishing an industry. Keeping that in mind I pursued Masters and PhD in Organic Chemistry. I also completed post-doctoral research. After gaining experience in the field, I set up MSN Lab with minimum investment of Rs5 crore and a team of 25 professionals. Today MSN has grown to a total workforce of 20,000 with offices in 45 countries and business in 72 countries,” Dr MSN Reddy told Bizz Buzz.

MSN Group, from posting initial earnings of Rs10-12 crore, has grown at an average rate of 25- 30 per cent annually, into a Rs10,000 crore business. MSN Laboratories, the pharma arm of MSN Group, is primarily focused on drug development and manufacturing including Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and finished dosage forms. MSN Pharmaceuticals Inc is a wholly-owned US subsidiary of MSN Lab, which specialises in contract development and manufacturing of generic medicines in the US. In August 2024, MSN Group forayed into real estate as a developer of residential projects with the setting up of MSN Realty.

The company has entered an MoU with the State government for establishing a facility at the upcoming orange category Pharma City. On its progress, he said that the government will begin marketing the project after completing the ongoing development of basic civic infrastructure.

The government is quoting Rs1.50 crore per acre wherein MSN has committed to set up a unit spread across 100 acres, to work on formulations and R&D. Last year alone the company has invested nearly Rs600 crore into R&D, which is about eight per cent of investments, Dr Reddy informed.

Charting an ambitious growth plan for MSN Lab, Dr Reddy said that it will grow its Biosimilars presence, which according to him has a future similar to the IT boom. The company will also consider acquiring a company.

“We might be having over 500 different drugs, but in that 30 drugs would be for one therapy, 100 molecules will be for another therapy. Hence, if there is least amount of overlapping with another company, we will be open for acquiring that

company.

Also, there is high potential for CDMO business in India. Not only we, others are also looking at acquiring a contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO).”

According to Dr Reddy, all these years the CDMO business was concentrated in China. However, now businesses want to move out of China, passing on that potential opportunity to India provided that facilities can maintain GLP, GLM and other compliances, he added.