What is the history behind Corona Remedies’ rapid growth? We began in 6th December 2004 with a team of two people and a vision to become India’s most admired pharmaceutical company. Today, we have a team of more than 3,000 all across the country. We have six divisions with 40 different brands. These brands therapeutic coverage comprises of nutraceuticals, cardio-diabeto, gynaecology, gastro intestinal, anti-infectives, respiratory, derma and orthopedic.

Our in-organic growth story started in 2017, when we acquired four brands from GSK and, in 2018, we purchased two brands from Abbott. Both transactions gained CORONA’s wide brand visibility, confidence and respect as being amongst very few domestic companies acquiring brands from MNC’s. Our ability to identify gaps in the market and strong capability to execute is our differentiation factor.

What is your manufacturing capacity? We manufacture tablets, capsules and liquids. We have a state-of-art WHO-GMP manufacturing facility at Solan, Himachal Pradesh, and we are about to start our second oral solid dosage plant (OSD) in the outskirts of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, having an investment of around US$13 million. Our new OSD plant shall be operational by October 2020, following EU GMP guidelines, and it has more than twice our current capacity at the Solan plant, which is currently operating at 600 million tablets, 60 million capsules and 10 million liquids per annum.

What is the breakdown between the acute and the chronic segments? When we started, we focused more on acute portfolio. We carried a portfolio mix of 65% acute and 35% chronic. However, since 2010, we changed our positioning and shifted towards the chronic segment, which carries huge growth potential. Today, 65% of our business comes from chronic diseases. In the next three years, we expect our chronic portfolio to grow up to 80% of the total revenue. We expect high growth in our gynecology, cardiovascular, diabetic and nutraceutical segments. We cover more than 80% of all gynecologists in India. Due to changes in lifestyles patterns and food habits in India, we have a focused approach towards the cardiovascular and anti-diabetic segment.

How important are the international markets for Corona Remedies? Currently, we are prominently focused on the domestic market, but we foresee huge growth opportunities in the international market. Today, only 5% of our revenues are generated from exports, comprising majorly from African countries and semi-regulated markets like CIS countries and South East Asia.

Moving forward, we are going to focus heavily on exports, which is the main reason we are investing heavily on our export oriented EU – GMP OSD facility in Ahmedabad. Change will not happen overnight: we need two to three years to obtain international registrations, so by 2022-2023 we expect exports to grow phenomenally, with a strong focus on the European market.

What do you expect the impact of COVID-19 to be on India’s pharmaceutical segment? The pharma industry has been the least affected by COVID-19, if compared with other sectors. Due to this pandemic, growth will slow down to 3% or 4% this year, but we shall still see growth in pharma.

At Corona Remedies, our sales forecast for FY 2021 will be around US$100 million and we are quite confident to bounce back in these critical times and try to achieve the forecasted numbers.

Why is Gujarat such an important hub for the pharmaceutical industry worldwide? Gujarat has rightly showcased PPP model (Public Private Partnership). Gujarat’s Food and Drug Administration is very dynamic, transparent and supportive and entrepreneur’s of Gujarat also reflect the same of dynamism. Gujarat possesses good skilled and unskilled manpower, which are easily available.