Sanofi India Ltd Q4 CY21 Earnings Conference Call Insights

Key highlights from Sanofi India Ltd (SANOFI) Q4 CY21 Earnings Concall

Q&A Highlights:

• Vipul Shah of RippleWave Equity asked if the [analium] price impact already in 4QCY21 for Lantus. Rajaram Narayanan MD replied that the analium list has not been formally released. It is generally expected sometime in 1H22. SANOFI added that there is a likelihood that Lantus could be included.

• Vipul Shah of RippleWave Equity asked about the reason for other expenses at a very elevated levels in the quarter. Vaibhav Karandikar CFO replied the elevated other expense is due to SANOFI back to the field in terms of physical operations. Also there was an element of CSR spend. And another reason was due to sales being lower in 4Q21 versus 3Q21.

• Vipul Shah of RippleWave Equity also enquired about the sales drop in the quarter and if it was due to any seasonality.  Vaibhav Karandikar CFO answered that the drop was due to the impact of the nutraceutical business, which was there in 4QCY21. Also, in 2QCY21 and 3QCY21, certain products had higher sales due to the COVID impact.

• Cyndrella Thomas with Centrum Broking asked about the diabetes portfolio volume growth on an annual basis. Rajaram Narayanan MD commented that the overall volume growth of insulin is at about a little over 5% in terms of total volume. However, it’s much higher now driven by the launch of Toujeo and expects the momentum in Toujeo to continue.

• Suchi Narula asked about the contribution of COVID related sales in CY21. Rajaram Narayanan  MD replied that the company doesn’t have any COVID contributing therapies or medicines that are specifically dedicated to COVID. However, need for couple of therapies accelerated due to hospitalization like Enoxaparin, which had a 12-15% increase on an annualized basis.

• Suchi Narula also asked about the current contribution of products under analium. Rajaram Narayanan  MD said that 18% of the company’s portfolio comes under analium at this point in time.

• Suchi Narula enquired about the impact of going digital in a big way on the PCPM opex and capex. Rajaram Narayanan MD answered there is no real impact on capex on account of digitalization. As far as opex, the company is seeing some reduction as the face to face interaction has come down. The digitalization will help the company enhance the reach.

• Himanshu Upadhyay of o3 Capital asked about the size of the domestic business ex of divestments done in 2021 and growth in the non-divested business. Vaibhav Karandikar CFO replied the overall increase is about 13%, ex of non-divested business. The size of non-divested business is INR2,240 crores.

• Himanshu Upadhyay of o3 Capital asked with diabetes being the main business for SANOFI, the reason there hasn’t been much product introductions in that portfolio. Rajaram Narayanan MD replied that currently the company’s focus is entirely on insulin. And it’s in insulin SANOFI is looking at a pipeline to build, which is a heavily underpenetrated market.

• Himanshu Upadhyay of o3 Capital asked if cardio a core business for SANOFI as not many products were introduced. Rajaram Narayanan MD replied that in cardiology there are some products that are launched already in other parts of the world. And the company is looking at them if there is an opportunity to bring them to India.

• Himanshu Upadhyay of o3 Capital asked what would be like-to-like growth of the market where SANOFI is present versus 13% for the company. Rajaram Narayanan MD replied broadly the company would be in line with the market. Removing the COVID specific entries and exits, SANOFI is in line with the market.

• Harshal Patil of Sharekhan asked about the combined contribution of diabetes and cardio in the total revenues. Rajaram Narayanan MD said the company doesn’t look at it separately. For SANOFI insulin is roughly closer to about 30%-odd of the portfolio. More specifically, cardio is an interlinked therapy.