Note: This is a preliminary transcript and may contain inaccuracies. It will be updated with a final, fully-reviewed version soon.
Anthem BioSciences Ltd (NSE: ANTHEM) Q4 2026 Earnings Call dated May. 20, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Amey Chalke — Investor Relations
Ajay Bhardwaj — Chief Executive Officer
Mohammed Gawir Baig — Chief Financial Officer
Analysts:
Bansi Desai — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Saion Mukherjee — Analyst
Vivek Gautam — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to The Anthem Biosciences Q4FY26 earnings conference call hosted by JM Financial Institutional securities. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Star then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr.
Amay Chakale from JM Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Amey Chalke — Investor Relations
Yeah. Thank you Alvic. Good morning and warm welcome to all the Participants on Anthem Biosciences 4Q and FY26 earnings call hosted by JM Financial. Today on this call we have with us from the Management Mr. Ajay Bharagwaj, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer and Mr. Gavir Baik, Chief Financial Officer. I will now hand over the call to the Mr. Ajay Bharatwaj for his opening remarks. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Ajay Bhardwaj — Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. Thank you Ame. And thank you everyone for being on this call. Good morning. At the outset I’m very pleased to say we ended the financial year 2526 on a very strong note. Our consolidated revenue from operations for the full year was 2,124 crore. Out of this our CRDMO business contributed 83% of our of this revenue delivering 1,773 crores which was an 18% growth over last year. Speciality ingredients contributed 17% of our revenue and that delivered 352 crores worth of sales. We delivered 156 crore other income for the financial year taking our total revenue to 2,280 crore which was a growth of 18% over last year.
Other operating income includes gain on account of forex and raw debt, export incentives of 63 crores and financial and other non operating income of 92 crores. Our EBITDA was just shy of 1000 crore at 990 crore which included other income with EBITDA margins of 43.4%. A growth of 31% on absolute terms and four hundred and twenty basis points on margins over the last financial year. PBT before exception Items were was 849crores. A word about the new labor code impact and tax expense. Our profit after tax for the year was 592 crores.
A growth of 31% over last year with PAT margins of 26% Net cash position as of 03-31-2026 is 1,375 crores. With respect to the quarterly financial this was our highest revenue quarter ever, which was that is in Q4FY26 we delivered a revenue growth year on year of 26% for the quarter consolidated revenues at 611 crores. The CRDMO business delivered 513 crore revenues with a growth of 31% on a year on year basis. Chality ingredients delivered 98 crores, a growth of 8% year on year Y on yield. EBITDA including other incomes was 318 crores, a growth of 52% over last year with EBITDA margins at 48%.
48.1% to be precise. PPT before exceptional items was 277 crores. So we reassessed the impact of the new labor Code changes factoring in the revised remuneration structure. As a result, we have recognized a credit of 98 lakhs as exceptional items on account of the new labor code implementation. PAT was 190 crores for the quarter with PAT margins at 28.7%, a growth of 130% on a YoY basis. So overall in a nutshell, it was a strong performance for the financial year 202526 with the highest revenue quarter ever in Q4 FY26.
Anthem’s commitment to prudent cost management and focus on long term value creation has enabled us to expand profitability margins while delivering this revenue growth. Our EBITDA and PAD for the year grew by more than 30% in line with our 30% in line with our growth aspirations and we continue to maintain a healthy financial position and remain committed to delivering sustainable growth across all business segments. As we step into this financial year of 2627, our priorities remain clear to build one of the most agile, science, led and future ready CRDMO platforms in the world.
Well, thank you for your attention. I may I now open the floor for any questions and comments.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you ladies and gentlemen. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press STAR and one on their touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press STAR in two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. We will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Our first question comes from the line of Bansi Desai with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Bansi Desai
Yeah, hi, thanks for taking my question and congrats on good finish to the year. So as we step in fiscal 27, how should we think about the growth for CRDMO business, both for research and, you know, development and manufacturing, both these pieces. Also, you know, if you could comment on, you know, for our key products where we had witnessed some destocking impact in fiscal 26, you know, are those largely sorted now? You know, should we see, you know, growth coming back on those molecules as we, you know, move ahead?
Ajay Bhardwaj
Yeah. Well, thanks, Mansi. Just an overall comment. We, you know, when we look at the future, we, if you look at our history as well, if you look at our track record, we evolved. We have delivered growth in the vicinity of 20% and more. And that’s what we aspire to even in the coming years. And so it is for us. We believe that we are in a good place to align with what we’ve done in the past. But of course that remains to be seen. But we are very confident of our growth trajectory in this year and the years to come.
On the question of destocking that portion, there was definitely that with our customers, from many of our customers. But you have seen that in spite of that, we have delivered such good growth. So going forward, when things get better and when this situation of destocking now swings to restocking, I think Anthem would be even in a better place. So again, I think mostly it’s behind us and we expect that this will have a very positive impact on Anthem’s top line and bottom line.
Mohammed Gawir Baig
I just want to add something over here. Historically, if you look at it last 10 years, our revenue growth has been around 20% level. Even when we started last year, we said that we’ll be delivering about 20%, but then we course corrected and then we delivered about 15% revenue growth while we had said 20% on revenues and 20% on EBITDA and PAT, whatever was the shortfall on revenues, we more than meet up with respect to our EBITDA and PAT performance with a 30% EBITDA growth and 30% plus PAT growth for FY25, 26.
So our aspirations are quite high. What we have delivered in the past, we, you know, historically over a long term period. And we are not talking about a near term, FY27 or a near term, you know, two
Unidentified Participant
Years, one
Mohammed Gawir Baig
Year or a two year kind of a period. We want to refrain from giving any guidance for FY27 or FY28. But long term, have we probably in the ingredients from the growth point of view, I say that the answer is yes. We’re investing in people we’re investing in our facilities, we are investing in technology. And all of this is also seen by our customers. Customers do like us. We are getting more and more projects as well. Our commercial portfolio has increased. Our other portfolio from a late stage pornography has also gone up.
So all the ingredients are there. I would refrain from giving a forward looking FY27 or a near term guidance, but our thought process is to deliver on what we have delivered in the past across all parameters. Last year we missed out on one parameter, but more than compensated on the two parameters on EBITDA impact. But we will continue to do our best to deliver going forward across all parameters from the growth and profitability point of view.
Bansi Desai
No thanks and appreciate that. My second question is also in terms of how do we from here on intend to augment our relationship with more innovators? So I know we’ve got very strong relationship with probably three of the top 20 big pharma. We’ve added probably two more there. So as we move along what probably, you know, the initiatives that, that you’ve been taking, you know, so that we, we probably have, we see broadening, you know, of our footprint with, you know, more innovators, large innovators and secondly, on capacities, you know, do you think this is constrained by, you know, our capacity?
And therefore as we move along over the next two years when more capacity comes on online, you know, we should see, you know, broadening of our relationship with more big Pharma.
Ajay Bhardwaj
Well, yeah, it is already, as you rightly said. And there have been two notable additions last year in big Pharma, which we didn’t have earlier. We expect those relations to, and these were done directly. Okay. A lot of our relationship with big Pharma have come through acquisitions of the biotechs that we’ve been working with. And when they get acquired, we, as I said, we move into working with big Pharma. And then, and then once we’re in there, we try to broaden our relationship in other, other, other parts of their business.
However, now they’ve been last year we’ve had two direct contacts and do two direct relationships which are now, I’m glad to say, growing healthily. And we expect that, you know, as see, this is not a, it’s not a, it’s not like flipping a switch. Your customers will have to build confidence in you and they will slowly start giving you more and more exposure to their business. So a larger contract. And I think we’ve already done that the initial part and we expect that we will see a Bigger part of their pie in the years ahead.
That’s one. Secondly, a lot of our new programs, we have at this moment about 10 programs in the phase 3 in small biotechs and it’s historically they always get acquired. So we, once they get acquired by Big Pharma, we will, we expect that our relationship will be now will be with new Big Pharma. So I think we’re in a good place. We had about 100 projects are in more than 100 projects we are doing in R and D in early stages and 10 of them are in phase three. So we are in a good place, I think to add more Big Pharma customers to our portfolio.
Mohammed Gawir Baig
And the point which you had asked on capacity, I don’t see with the capacity additions that we have made in the last financial year. With respect to unit two expansion and also unit three commissioning, we have a decent headroom right now which we can use. Up till that time our unit 4 comes up both on chemistry and biology. So capacity will not be a constraint. And unit two expansion that we made, that added significant capacity, we moved up from 270 kiloliters in unit 246 kiloliters in unit two to almost about 400376 kilo litres in unit two.
So it’s a 50% addition. Unit three is also fully up and running right now. The capacity will not be a constraint. What we are doing in unit four is more to make ourselves future ready so that whenever the capacity comes up for unit four and there are more programs coming in from early stage biotech innovators or from Big Pharma, we have the wherewithal to be able to service them. So capacity is not a constraint for us now.
Bansi Desai
All right, thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Saim Mukherjee with Nomura Holdings. Please go ahead.
Saion Mukherjee
Yeah, thank you for taking my question, sir. So one question. You know, you mentioned about, you know, you’re trying to make the business more agile, you know, future ready CRDMO platform. In that context, what are the biggest missing pieces that you would like to address, let’s say over the next two, three years, either organically or even inorganic, is part of your plans, whether in India or even outside India, given the current geopolitical situation and you’re expanding customer relationships.
Ajay Bhardwaj
Yeah, thanks Ayaan. Again, in terms of becoming more agile and more ready, science led and be ready for our customers. What Anthem is doing is investing in technology. We though we do have, you know, if you would look, if you look at our factories we do have traditional bio reactors and bioreactors. But at the same time we are also investing heavily in changing the way chemistry is done. So we are looking at and also biology. Can we do this in a continuous fashion? Can we change it to using, you know, bringing better automation and control?
Can we also do, you know, more green chemistry? All of this at a commercial scale. So where we have the advantages that when we look at a program, we look at it very early in the, in its, in its, in its evolution. And so when it’s an early program comes in, you can implement all these so that when it gets goes for regulatory, when it goes to the regulators, you’ve already implemented these new technologies. That puts us in a place where we have obviously the respect of the customer, but also the regulators love better control, more green chemistry and at the same time delivering higher quality as a result of all these better controls.
So the emphasis on technology will remain. And this is not just limited to what we have already told everybody. We are adding new aspects to this technology. And as and when you visit Anthem, you’ll be able to see those in action. So this is the first part. Secondly, in terms of acquisitions and growth, I mean apart from our organic growth, which is also substantive, we are not averse to looking at acquisitions both in India and abroad. We are actively searching. Unfortunately, we haven’t come across the right candidate.
And I’ve said this ad nauseum and I’ll repeat it again. We will not do an acquisition for the sake of an acquisition. It has to make sense and it has to be the right asset. So we’re always scouting for such targets. But once they come along, only then at the right one there we’ll make that call. So this is, you know, to answer, we will drive our business through technology.
Saion Mukherjee
Understood. Just one more question on CapEx, you know, if you can talk about your CapEx number for next year as you’re expanding the new unit and also slightly medium term CAPEX outlook, let’s say over the next three, four years. If you can guide for that.
Mohammed Gawir Baig
Sure. So Saim, in terms of a CAPEX plan, the first and the major capex, what we are incurring right now is on unit four. Unit four, we have articulated that this is going to be our largest project. Unit 1, 2 and 3 put together. The unit 4 is going to be much larger than all of the units put together. So it’s a 30 acre piece of land. And all our unit 1, 2 and 3 put together is close to about 30 acres. So in phase one of that expansion we are looking at adding and we are looking at investing almost about 1200 odd crores across two years.
This year FY27 and in FY28 we aim to complete the phase one expansion by March 28th financial year. Towards the later half of March 28th this will add close to about 365 kiloliters of custom synthesis capacity and 100 kiloliters of fermentation vis a vis. Our current capacity is 425 kilolitres custom synthesis and 180 kilo l fermentation. So we are more or less doubling on custom synthesis and adding 50% more on the fermentation side. So that’s on unit four will be completing a few expansion which is ongoing.
More on unit 2 and unit 3 which is lying as cwip in our books in this half year of FY27 but largely medium term if you look at it, it’s going to be unit four which will be driving the major part of it. Just to add, we still have two more phases to be done with respect to unit four that we will take it up once phase one gets completed and that will be post March 28. But the aspirations are huge over there so that we can build a much larger facility which will in phase one at least double. In phase two.
It could be triple of our overall size from an overall capacity size point of view.
Saion Mukherjee
Understood. Just a clarification. So next year your capex would be north of 600 crores, right?
Mohammed Gawir Baig
Yes. Would
Saion Mukherjee
That be a right assessment? So can you 600 plus from residual CAPEX plus maintenance CAPEX. So what would be the number we should work with next year?
Mohammed Gawir Baig
Roughly about 700 and then post that will be about 500.
Saion Mukherjee
Okay. Yeah, thanks a lot.
Mohammed Gawir Baig
And this we
Operator
Are
Mohammed Gawir Baig
Investing for the future.
Saion Mukherjee
Yeah,
Operator
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Debanjan Bhakta with universal Sompo General Insurance. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity.
Operator
Yes, please be a little louder though. Thank you.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, like I wanted to get some color on the product side. As you’re seeing like new orders coming on the new RSQs, what modalities are they coming in? Like are they biological entities or chemical entities?
Mohammed Gawir Baig
Sorry, the Banjan. I didn’t catch that question. What? Can you just repeat the question?
Unidentified Participant
Like the orders that you are seeing, the new orders that you are seeing coming, Right. Are they coming in the biological entity modalities or chemical entity model?
Mohammed Gawir Baig
Both. Both. And I would say that across both custom synthesis side and biology side. Plus on the advanced technologies on the custom synthesis more on the peptides or on the RNAI side, we’re getting more and more orders there.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, and another question like what payload are we developing in the ADC platform? What type of payload? What type of payload are we developing in the ATC platform?
Ajay Bhardwaj
I mean I’m not at a liberty to disclose those. Those are confidential work that we do for our clients. But we do a variety of payloads at least I think 15, 20 payloads we have. We work on and depending on what our clients want and some of them are proprietary. So that’s a very interesting area and we have a huge amount of activity going on there. I’m sorry, I won’t be able to give you the names of payloads.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, and last question. From the current manufacturing revenue source, how much of it coming from biologics and how much it is coming from chemical entities? The current manufacturing revenues,
Mohammed Gawir Baig
A larger portion of it is from custom synthesis. But see the Banjan a lot of work includes enzymatic work. There is a lot of peptides work which is which. Which gets done a lot of work on the RNAI side even in custom synthesis on some of the areas we use biotransformation. So it’s very difficult to articulate and differentiate saying that this is pure biology and this is pure play custom synthesis. But a sizable portion of our work comes from the NC molecule side on the custom synthesis side.
Ajay Bhardwaj
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Operator
The next question comes from the line of Vivek Gautam with GS investment. Please go ahead.
Vivek Gautam
Congratulations sir for good set of numbers. And my question is any risk of talking destocking, inventory etc in our company and GLP1 basically how is the opportunity size for us and overall opportunity size for us in an expected growth rate for the next two, three years and differentiated for our company. Sir. Thank you.
Ajay Bhardwaj
Okay, to answer the first question there is the destocking that had to happen has already happened. So this year everything will be in the positive territory. So they are not they are restocking now. So that part is behind us. And the second part is on the question of GLP1 we are in see if you follow the GLP approvals in India most of them have their active is from China and now we are in conversation with I would say all the big players to be to give them an alternate which is based here in India.
So we’re in a very good position as far as GLP1 goes. But this will be the in the as after Most of them have launched and so we will be in a good place to replace imports. And that is a position that we are, you know, we’ve always been strong in. The third was, the third question was on differentiator
Vivek Gautam
For our company and opportunity size and expected growth rate for the next few years.
Ajay Bhardwaj
So historically we’ve grown upwards of 20% and we feel confident that this, this, this is what we want to maintain. However, you know, as I say we don’t give forward looking guidance so I would not be able to give a number but you know we do, we do aspire to the growth that we have maintained so far. And everything as far as Anthem is concerned is aligned to give you that growth rate. And in terms of the. What differentiates us, I think it starts at the very, the very, very basic thing. We are very different from our peers in India.
We are more focused on small biotechs and therefore we are more on the discovery side rather than the full time equivalent type of business. What we differentiate ourselves is by technology as well I think in that we have no peers in the country. We absolutely approach every problem from a new technology solution and which our clients love. I think that gives us a lot of visibility and traction with our clients. The third part that differentiates is our, our culture as well as the, you know, a very large number of our.
Hello, Is it, is the line still. Yes.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, yeah please.
Ajay Bhardwaj
A very large number of our employees are on, on our ESOP plan. 40% at the time of announcing stock options. So we have a, we have a very young energized workforce which wants us to see the company grow and I think our really making a difference.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah. So any risk of AI in the discovery stage where we are focused?
Ajay Bhardwaj
Yeah. We see AI is, is coming into all kinds of function of the company. It starts with the recruitment, with hr, with warehousing. So we are, we are trying to bring in, you know there’s a lot of type of hype of AI but you have to pick up the use cases and implement them, implement them case by case as they are relevant to you. So it’s not some overarching thing that you can say. I have not put the company on AI. It has to be in the areas where it is relevant. So those are, that’s a, it’s a work in progress.
We are constantly exploring that.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you sir.
Operator
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Vivek Rakolia with Fincom Family office. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Very good morning. Am I audible?
Operator
Yes.
Unidentified Participant
Thanks a lot for the opportunity and apologies in advance of my questions are very basic. I’m very new to the company. I, I wanted to understand firstly, on the peptide front, a listed peer claims to have also developed the capability of making the full peptide chain, right from fragments to the APIs. They have even started expanding their capacity for the same. How do you see this development and what would be your strategy to differentiate against the competition domestic and international?
Ajay Bhardwaj
Okay, listen, for instance when you, okay, this is not a, this is not a science lesson, but when you say peptide, peptide is like saying an organic molecule. So they are very different type of peptides and it’s a full body of chemistry by themselves. There is many ways to make, depending on the peptide that is of interest, you can make different fragments, then do convergent synthesis, or you can do even serially step by step, or you can do partly by fermentation and partly by synthesis and then do what’s called biosynthesis.
So there are all kinds of ways of doing it. So depending on the peptide in question, we’ve actually done, we have 7 or 8 or may not even more than that, 1012 peptides which we are working on. So each of them follow a different strategy, depends on the structure and the way it has to be built. So I won’t have an answer which is, you know, to give you a very generic answer, how are we doing this? We again, when we look at a problem, we look at what is the most optimal solution in terms of economics.
So we approach the problem from that side, which therefore our aim is always to get the best cost of goods. As to your other thing that, you know, the other question that somebody is doing all this assembly of a peptide right from beginning. So is Anthem. So I mean, I don’t have, you know, I’m not privy to what they are doing, but Anthem is in a very, very good place as, as far as GLP1 type of peptides are concerned, I believe that we have extremely competitive cost of goods rivaling even the Chinese.
So I think we’re in a good place there. We’re very competitive.
Unidentified Participant
Great, thanks a lot for that answer. And next was also just stepping back in terms of molecules and complexities. Would it be the correct understanding that the TAM of peptide is larger than that of oligonucleotides? And also just wanted to confirm if between say peptide, oligonucleotides and ADCs, how would you, how would you rank on the base or yourself on the basis of the complexity of the subject that you work with your capability of course. And the TAM of these areas and competition. If you can explore these areas of these three molecules and modalities,
Ajay Bhardwaj
You know, you’re asking a very fundamental question. Right now peptides are the most successful commercial molecules. So in terms of dam, they would be the biggest. But for very some applications, peptides don’t work. So there you need an edc and that’s a very big area of growth in the, in the pharma industry. And then again when you bring oligonucleotides, they are everywhere again. So Anthem has capability to work in all these areas. That is something which is because these are the new modalities and these are new areas of research.
And as I said, Anthem addresses all its addresses all the problems, find solutions, technological solutions. So we are present in these three modalities in a very strong way. I mean it would be unfair to compare ADC vs peptide vs they all do specific jobs and they are designed for that. The idea is to, you know, get to the patient, the right treatment. So Anthem is present in all of them. As far as market is concerned, given the very large nature of, you know, diabetes as well as obesity, right now peptides are the largest sales and you know, and, and in the foreseeable future, that’s what it looks like.
Unidentified Participant
Great, thanks a lot for your answers. All the very best. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Dhaval Kut with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hi, thanks for taking my question. I wanted to understand what steps are we taking to build a pipeline even in large molecules. And you know, wanted to delve deeper into the BD side of large molecule. Like how willing are innovators to give their projects to Indian crdmo? How easy or difficult is it to bring those early stage molecules in the country versus let’s say, you know, the willingness in small molecules. And does India have any cost benefit advantage versus Korea or China? Because you know, CRDMO from those region claim that in large molecules there is no cost difference, their yields are extremely high.
So just wanted to get thoughts around the large molecule CRDMO space. That’s my first question.
Ajay Bhardwaj
Okay, thanks Daval. See, Anthem is as I said, we are focused equally not all our peers in India at least are. We are focused very well on biology as well as chemistry. So we’re making investments to in this space as well so that we can do large molecules manufacture. And we are working with about four or five projects where we would be the development partner and hopefully then the manufacturing partner in large molecules to Answer your question about, you know, how willing they are, they have no problem.
Most of the people, most of the customers we work with and they don’t see a problem of coming to India. The problem, if it is any, lies in the capacities. So the Koreans in particular in China also and the large companies have massive capacity. So in that sense they, they tend to be, they are, they are ahead of us. There’s no denying that the, because there is the upfront investment in large molecules is quite large. So you have to be willing to invest billions of dollars for those kind of capacities which some of the players in Korea and China have done.
That second part that what is Anthem doing to get people on board? Again, we plug away at this because I think in terms of early development, Anthem is a very, very good partner. And if you have early development, at least in biologics, the chances are that you can retain the project because you would know more about it than anybody else and they would not like to transfer out when all the regulatory things of work has also been done at Anthem. So our strategy is a little different. It has to be.
We can’t go in there, you know, like Celltrion or Samsung and say we give us the project or even Lonza a ready made project because they have the capacities to support it. But you know, all Indian companies are in the same position. Biosimilars, India is already making a dent so in novel molecules also it is in the same position that we were in small molecules, let’s say 20, 25 years ago in NCES. And I think it’s a very good place because now the barriers of, mental barriers of giving work to India are not there.
So the more we invest, which we are, the more we will see projects coming our way.
Unidentified Participant
Got it. This is a very helpful commentary. Secondly, just wanted to get the update on the biosimilar asset that we are working on. How’s the progress going on? And eventually when things will hit our PNL we’ll put it under the CRDMO category or lit 4, all under the specialty ingredients.
Ajay Bhardwaj
That’s going really well. That project is well on its way. And I think, you know, as you know there is a process of doing this. It has to be refiled three batches. All that is going on now and that typically the lead times in approval of another site tends to be, you know, one year or so. I think it will hit our P and L next year. Where will we classify it? I think it will go in crdml. Yeah, it will go in crdm.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you sir, I have more question. I will join back the case.
Ajay Bhardwaj
Yeah, thanks.
Operator
A reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Ashish with uti. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. If you could also talk about specialty ingredient. What is the kind of order book that we are dealing with right now? Because is this segment currently a victim of destocking as we can see in the revenue growth numbers.
Mohammed Gawir Baig
Specialty ingredients, the nature of the business is slightly different. We are dealing with. Hi, can you hear me? There’s a little bit of background now. So we’re dealing with products like serratio, peptidase, vitamin B7, probiotics, enzymes, all of these products which we are dealing and that is more catered towards the India and Row markets. We are also looking at getting these products filed for some of the developed markets as well. So these are products, our own products where we are selling to Microsoft multiple customers.
So it’s a very. It’s slightly different than the CDMO business where you’re working with the innovators one on one and you know where there is dedicated manufacturing which we do for some of the customers and we get order book from them and significant large lead time in terms of supplying those molecules and hence you have order book right at the very beginning of the year. For six months down the line specialty ingredients has been a flow business for us. And if you look at specialty ingredients, I just want to add over there, last year was towards the first three quarters of the year was a little bit flat for us.
But we have started increasing revenues in specialty ingredients from the fourth quarter onwards. We delivered about 8% growth on the fourth quarter and we would aspire to grow that business also in a similar growth trajectory as what we are looking at growing for a CDMO business and overall on a 20% sort of specialty ingredients as well. We don’t have a order book, order book sort of a concept in specialty ingredients because we manufacture, depending we manufacture and then we try to sell to the customers who are already taking the product across multiple geographies and across multiple product categories.
Ajay Bhardwaj
So you know we are very confident now. We are also adding in a unit for a dedicated food facility. So this something which has been lacking, what has been happening is one reason why the growth tends to be a little patchy there is that we have the same facilities for speciality ingredients and our CDMO business, NCE business. So sometimes when the project is. When we get new projects in that area for CRDMO we tend to, you know, give less importance to the specialty ingredients business. So it tends to be some of their capacities get cannibalized by our CIDMO business.
So that’s one reason why they’re not able to really see the growth. But now we’re investing in a separate facility and that will help us a lot in the future.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, so given that some part of the gross block is actually fungible, how do you maintain margins then? Is there an aspiration? Because you have spoken about the revenue as growth aspiration. Anything on the EBITDA margin side you would like to comment on?
Mohammed Gawir Baig
So our expectations across all the parameters, whether it is revenue, EBITDA or pat, is the same technique. I mean, if we continue to grow our business in a particular growth rate, our costs are also escalating in a similar sort of a growth rate with a little bit of an operating leverage, we’ll be able to keep our margins constant and continue to have witness a similar growth trajectory in EBITDA as well as in a path terms.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, so 38, 40% EBITDA margins is a fair number to assume
Mohammed Gawir Baig
We’ve delivered so far and we’ll continue to deliver those numbers going forward as well.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. And lastly, on headwind side, for at least for our business, you do not see any risk emanating from the tariff situation, right?
Ajay Bhardwaj
No, tariffs is not a problem because most of the big pharma that we work with already have separate deal with the administration in the U.S. The second part is this is, I think, you know, these are very difficult times to predict what will happen in terms of headwinds. Nobody, nobody anticipated a war in the Middle East. There’s so many, so many things which are up in the air. In spite of that, Anthem has grown and grown really well, and I don’t see why we couldn’t do that. But these are times where there are inflationary pressures.
We all know that. We can see it. At the same time, we also know that what will deliver the goods is our technology platforms. And we believe that we’ll be able to maintain both growth and profitability.
Unidentified Participant
That’s very helpful. Thanks. And all the best.
Ajay Bhardwaj
Thank you.
Operator
The next question comes from the line of Cyan Mukherjee with Nomura Holdings. Please go ahead.
Saion Mukherjee
Yeah, thank you for the follow up. One question. You know, Anthem today is still a very small company, you know, compared to many global peers. And you have sort of a very cohesive unit, high quality service. It’s also reflected in steady growth and also very high profit margins and profitability. Now, if we look forward over the next four, five years, even if you grow at like 20%, maybe your scale will double or maybe triple. And if you add inorganic, it could sort of become even larger. Your comments do suggest that we are at an inflection point where CRDMO in India is accepted.
Also Anthem as a company is gaining traction with big Pharma. So the opportunities can come your way at a much faster pace. And that would require you to sort of grow much bigger than, let’s say, or much faster than what you have grown in the past. That would also sort of probably present some challenges on execution and profitability. How are you, I mean, have you envisioned like anthem From a 5, 7 year perspective, slightly longer term kind of aspiration you have and you know, these levels of profitability, can it sustain because it’s already very high compared to anyone else in the industry.
Ajay Bhardwaj
Yeah. So yeah, we have envisioned five to seven years of growth. We are, as we said, we are investing such a large amount in unit 4. By the time that comes in, gets seen and gets filled up, this will more. The capacity of unit four is going to be greater than all our units put together. So yes, we are, there are much bigger players out there. But you know, we’ve also had the fastest growth rate among all our peers. So we don’t see that, you know, at the end of the day it is about your growth rather than worrying about what does what other sizes.
Right. Somebody can have a bigger company. But we are growing faster than most, that’s one thing. Secondly, yes, we are investing in the future and we, and if we weren’t looking at five years, five years ahead, why would we investing such a large amount of money? The third thing about acquisitions and growth with. In terms of getting into an inorganic growth situation, yes, we are very keen on that. And if we get something which is the right quality and the right geography, we will definitely go for it.
So there is no doubt about it that we are looking at all possibilities and our cash situation allows us to be flexible. We can look at these possibilities and you are absolutely right. Our margins are really, really high. And to keep just to maintain them would be a human task. But I think we’re equal to it and we believe we can maintain them, but we really want to grow them as well. So we are better than our peers in growth, in terms of our growth, in terms of our margin and we intend to stay there.
Saion Mukherjee
Okay, thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Amay Chalke with JM Financial Services. Please go ahead. Amit. Sir, please go ahead with your question and unmute your line in case if you are on mute.
Amey Chalke
Sure. Thank you for giving me opportunity. I have first question on CRO. How it has done during the year and the quarter and if we can provide the breakup also along with that, the GMs have gone up over last one year as well as this quarter or the second half. It is consistently above 65%. Is it contributed by the higher CRO mix and what is the outlook? Thank you,
Mohammed Gawir Baig
Amit. With respect to the gross margins, we had articulated this that for one of the intermediates where we were outsourcing it and we were not completely backward integrated, we. We became backward integrated during the course of last year and it started showing in the gross margins with respect to the material margin movement that integration is complete. We source the raw material, manufacture the intermediates. We manufactured the API and supplied the customer. So we are not reliant on any external source.
So that backward integration has helped us in terms of improving our material margins which has moved up over Q3 and Q4 Q4 of last year. Now, in terms of the split of revenues, a large portion of our business still comes from commercial molecules. And in the course of last year we had four molecules which meant commercial. So our commercial pipeline increased to 14. On the, on the late stage side we had 10. At the beginning of the year we got four of them moved towards commercial. But we also added a few more molecules in the late stage pipeline.
And now the late stage pipeline stands at 10 phase 3 molecules. And along with that we work on 100 plus programs on the early stage side.
Unidentified Participant
So the development and manufacturing batches, what we supply for
Mohammed Gawir Baig
Some of these early stage late stage molecules is roughly about 15% of our revenues. Commercial is about 60% 14, 60% and 14%. R&D is about 8 to 9% of our business. And the balance is specialty ingredients. Specialty ingredients is about 17% of our business. That’s the breakdown.
Amey Chalke
Sure, sure. Thank you so much. And the one question I have for Ajay. So like CRO, API AI companies are also started coming in in the US market. Although we are fortunately more manufacturing company. But how do you see this AI evolution in the CR DMO space? And do you think that there is any space for this AI coming into the manufacturing side of it which can be a material advantage on the AI? Yeah.
Ajay Bhardwaj
Okay. I mean what we hear is that discovery, it will be a big aid in discovery, which is identification of molecules given a particular target. It will do it far faster, better. We also Hear that it will give us many, many more optimized routes of manufacture. So there AI will definitely play a part. I’m pretty sure of that. But in the end of the day you somebody has to you know get into the plant and manufacture and that’s 83% of our business. I mean not it’s very high percentage of our business.
So we are I think going to be, we feel we are a little protected. Manufacturing still has to be done but there are areas where it will start to you start to optimize your. Your thing. You will be able to optimize your plants better with better use of AI. That will only help us and that will help us improve our margins hopefully. So I don’t have a know a clear cut answer to it but there will be portions of your business which will benefit from it and I think we’ll implement it in depending on case by case as to where we see the maximum benefit and implement AI there overall a company which has to be AI ready.
It’s not a catch all but it will solve certain problems better than people can. And I think that’s something that we will hear. We will be definitely looking.
Amey Chalke
Sure. Just last question if I can like on GLP1, when is the commercialization is expected on the generic side of it and can it be a material segment for us going ahead? Thank you so much.
Ajay Bhardwaj
Well looking and looking into the future it will be a, it will be a big contributor. I’m pretty sure of it. At the same time, you know all our customers are working on their new formulation with our material. So it also depends on when they can get approval and when we can get approval from to launch it. So I think it’s just sitting there. Otherwise we are in a good place. That could happen in six months, it could happen in eight months. But I think we are there.
Amey Chalke
Sure sir. Thank you so much. I would join.
Ajay Bhardwaj
Thank you.
Operator
The next question comes from the line of Dhaval Khut with Jeffrey’s group. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Thanks for the follow up. I just wanted some more color on the phase three molecule pipeline that we have two parts to it. So on the first part, you know the recently added four molecules. So how many are lateral entry for us versus you know molecules coming from phase two and graduating to phase three. And secondly can you divide this entire basket of 10 molecules into you know how many are big pharma versus biotech as of now and what will be the modalities of this entire basket of 10 molecules.
Mohammed Gawir Baig
In terms of the additions which have Happened in phase three. All of them are non lateral. So these are molecules where we were working with them on early phase, phase two and they moved to phase three. All of them are emerging biotech. So it has come from our entire biotech funnel where we work right from discovery development, supplying them the small quantities and then as the quantities progress and as the product moves from phase one to phase two, they move to phase three. It’s a good mix of molecules which are on ADC side.
It’s a good mix of molecules. We have some molecules where we also do biotransformation and that has also moved on paste. So I won’t say that, you know, it’s more dominated towards one particular therapeutic category or one particular, you know, technology category. It’s a good mix across all the spectrum of ADC, peptides or oligos, etc. Work, what we do and everything coming from the emerging biotech customer.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, so this basket of 10 is a mix across, you know, different technologies that you have. Is that a fair understanding? Right? At least you have one molecule in each of them. Okay, got it. Lastly, is US Pharma tariff creating any challenges in terms of business development, you know, especially with the US customers or you think the customers are also taking it with a bit of a pinch of salt because there’s a lot of to and fro, the clarity is not there. And they are, they’re planning for long term.
Mohammed Gawir Baig
No, it hasn’t had any impact on us. And if you look at the nature of our business, most of our commercial products are with the big pharma and they have entered into separate arrangements with respect to the tariff part with the administration. The early stage biotech cluster for us is still in the early development or in the late development stage. So they are still in the drug candidates category for us. It’s not have at least till now we haven’t had any impact with respect to the tariff announcements.
Ajay Bhardwaj
And your point is. Good point that, you know, I think the biotechs are taking this with equanimity. There’s, you know, as you yourself said, there’s so much back and forth. Nobody is very clear what the intent is. It seems to be, the intent is very undefined and in the long run it doesn’t really matter. That’s how people have taken this view now that, you know, directionally, India and China, I mean, sorry, India and America are on the same side, so. So I think everybody’s okay with it.
Operator
Thank you ladies and gentlemen, in the interest of time, we will take the last Question from Udit Bokaria with catamaran. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Thanks for giving the opportunity sir. Just wanted to. I’m
Operator
Sorry to interrupt. Udit, please be a little louder. Thank you.
Unidentified Participant
Hello. Yeah.
Operator
Yes, thanks for
Unidentified Participant
The opportunity. Just wanted to understand a few of the commercial molecules which we were working with, biotic companies were acquired by large pharma and you had mentioned in the past that they are yet to be launched commercially by the big pharma because they were still doing some assessment. Right. So when do we expect that to be launched? That’s the first question. And the second question, if you can share what your US biotech partner is talking about now. Funding, biotech funding environment.
And are you seeing increase in the inquiries?
Ajay Bhardwaj
Yeah,
Mohammed Gawir Baig
So I’ll take on the biotech funding side. The biotech funding has been recovering and I think till About April, the four months it’s gone up by about 50 odd percent year on year. So there’s a recovery which has happened on the biotech funding side and we are also seeing that with respect to the request which is coming in on the early stage development projects, while the projects are smaller in size, but the number of requests which is coming in is increasing. So biotech funding is not a slight of concern for us.
Now with respect to the commercial molecule questions which you had asked for the last four molecules which went from our phase three pipeline to commercial last year. One of them was with a big pharma, the rest three were with the emerging biotech customers and they have launched the product in the market maybe towards the end of the year, some maybe towards the middle of the year. So it’s launched but the ramp up will take some time. They are still in the early phase of their launch in the market.
Unidentified Participant
And how should one read like from the customer indication, when can we expect the ramp up happening for these products?
Mohammed Gawir Baig
It takes two to three years to build to have the ramp up because we might have mentioned the peak sales estimates of the four commercial molecules which went commercial last year. But that peak sales estimates is tip 4 from typically from the analysts are 4 to 5 years from the launch date. So it will take some time to launch because they will be looking at launching this molecule in one geography, then they’re looking at filing, doing registrations in other geographies and launching it. With respect to registrations also it will take some time, so it will be two to three years, two to three years for the molecules to see that ramp up happen in the overall sales.
Unidentified Participant
So the current contribution from these four molecules would be like less than 5% or 2%. Like meaningless. Not really.
Mohammed Gawir Baig
Not really because they have launched it in the market. So they have taken launch quantities from us Ballpark. The current contribution from these four molecules will be in the range of closer to about 8 to 9% of our revenues. So when I talked about commercial molecules being about 60% of our revenues, 8 odd percentage ballpark will be from the new molecules which had been launched 8 to 9%. So
Ajay Bhardwaj
There’s a lot of headroom to grow.
Unidentified Participant
Understood, understood. And just back on the biotech funding part. So in terms of the our capacity to handle number of projects, right. Currently we are doing hundred projects. So how should we we think like what is the peak capacity of inquiries that we can handle and how are we ramping that up?
Ajay Bhardwaj
As you said, we have invested Neo Anthem. There are Unit three which is where we are putting. We’re putting a lot of labs so we can handle many more projects. But I must also tell you when it’s these projects come in different slices, right? It is not that these are everything is comes at one go. So there’ll be out of these hundred projects, some would be at the early stage of this development of the chemistry, some would be at a stage of optimizing that chemistry. And then another would be how we can.
Sorry, how we can get a commercial optimization of the process. So when there are so many aspects to it, it is not there. We have different teams to address that. So at any given time we can handle a lot of projects. It’s not that we are constrained by that. But you’re right, you need more and more labs and those. That’s what we built in unit three. So if the projects go to 200, we’ll be fine. We’ll be able to handle that.
Operator
Thank you ladies and gentlemen. That brings us to the end of the question and answer session. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for the closing remarks.
Ajay Bhardwaj
Okay, well first of all thank you everyone for attending this and as we have said, we will continue to be. Our aspiration is to be the most admired, the most agile and the one CECR DMO that follows the best practices around the world. Our customers have shown their trust in us by being very sticky. We have very long term relationships with most of our customers which is yielding us very good results. And going forward I expect that to remain and we are very confident about the future. The investments that we have made will start to at different.
Unit 3 is already turning around and it’s going to be in the positive territory this year. Unit 4 will be ready by the end of next financial year. By the next financial year. And so we are in a very good place to become the leading CRDMO out of our country. And, you know, after that, the sky is the limit. So thank you for your confidence in us, and we will work very hard to honor that confidence. Thank you very much.
Mohammed Gawir Baig
Thank you, everyone.
Operator
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of GM Financial Institutional securities, that concludes this conference call. Thank you for joining us. And you may now disconnect your lines.