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Informist, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026

 

--Dr Reddy's CFO: To reintroduce semaglutide in the market by Dec

--Dr Reddy's CFO: Quality check of new API for semaglutide in progress

--Dr Reddy's CFO: Semaglutide has huge potential going forward

--Dr Reddy's:Confident of gaining semaglutide mkt shr despite initial hiccups

--Dr Reddy's CFO: Expect to sell 6 mln semaglutide pens FY27

--Dr Reddy's CFO: Expect to sell 12 mln semaglutide pens FY28

 

By Narayana Krishna

 

HYDERABAD – Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. expects to reintroduce its version of diabetic and obesity drug semaglutide generic in the market by December, as announced earlier.

 

"What we have articulated in the July month conference call is we will come back to the market in Q3 (Oct-Dec) of FY27. That is possible now," Chief Financial Officer M.V. Narasimham told Informist.

 

Following Health Canada's approval on Apr. 28, Dr. Reddy's launched generic semaglutide injection in Canada on May. 15, its first rollout in a G-7 country. However, during production scale-up, internal quality checks detected an out-of-specification impurity in pre-validation active pharmaceutical ingredients batches, prompting the company to suspend commercial supplies on Jul. 9.

 

The disruption has led the company to cut its FY27 production target to 6-7 million pens from 12 million, with commercial supplies expected to resume by late October or early December.

 

Narasimham said currently, batch validation and quality test process is underway and based on that, the company expects availability of the new active pharmaceutical ingredients within the specified time.

 

"Once it is ready, we will start supplying the same to Onesource (Onesource Specialty Pharma Ltd.)  which will  start production of the batches by December," Narasimham said. Onesource is making the semaglutide pens for Dr. Reddy's under a contract manufacturing agreement.

 

He acknowledged that some value lost during the disruption couldn't be recovered, but said the long-term opportunity remains significant.

 

"We believe this product has a big potential. Once our product is there in the market, we will get the traction. Certainly whatever value we lost (due to quality issues) we cannot recover. But I think going forward, we are expecting huge potential," he said. The company, he said, is in the process of filing the drug application in several countries.

 

The company continues to see potential for annual sales of around 12 million pens from FY28, while it is also targeting commercialisation of around 6 million pens in FY27.

 

The 12 million pens include Dr. Reddy's own sales, along with supply agreements with other partners, he said. The company has semaglutide API supply agreement with Sandoz and a few others.

 

In Canada, though Sandoz has secured approval for semaglutide, it has to get the supply from Dr. Reddy's, he said.

 

"Sandoz used our dosage for approval. So now that they got an approval, they have to wait till we start supplying the products as per the agreement," he said, adding that the December deadline to reintroduce semaglutide also covers Canada.

 

Narasimham said the company is also focused on biosimilars and plans to launch at least one new product every year here onwards. He said the company is targeting to launch Pembrolizumab, targeted for FY29 and Doratelumab for FY31. The company recently appointed a new head for the biologics division to drive its growth plans in this segment, he said.

 

At 1254 IST, shares of Dr. Reddy's were at INR 1,226 on the National Stock Exchange, up 2% from the previous close.  End

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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