In past years the company began to look at diversifying into other specialty chemicals such as pharmaceutical intermediates.
Specialty chemical firm PI Industries is actively looking at the pharmaceutical sector as their next growth opportunity and to diversify from agrochemicals and technical textiles. They are seeing a surge in demand for intermediates or raw materials used for producing active pharmaceutical ingredients, following the coronavirus pandemic.
“In pharma, we have received a lot of enquiries to develop intermediates, especially after the pandemic. We developed an intermediate for a covid-19 drug, favipiravir, for some Indian and Japanese firms,” said PI Industries executive director Rajnish Sarna.
Specialty chemical firms, which were eyeing the intermediates business for the past few years, received a boost from the pandemic and the focus on localizing pharmaceutical supply chains.
PI Industries earns the bulk of its revenue from the agrochemical business. However, in the past three to four years, the company began to look at diversifying into other speciality chemicals such as pharmaceutical intermediates and imaging until it entered the segment this fiscal.
PI Industries’ foray into pharmaceuticals has been a manifestation of their perseverance. PI Industries’ FY20 annual report speaks vividly of finding adjacencies beyond agro-chemicals and to be able to find their feet in knowledge chemistries. The company has been consistently investing in R&D (3.5% of sales: Rs 115mn) to build a robust pipeline of novel molecules (closed FY20 with 60 molecules in the pipeline) and endeavours developing next generation, technology and processes.
PI Industries has had a penchant for setting foot in advanced chemistries (as mentioned in previous annual reports) like fluorination, phosgenation, carboxylation and that now, makes more sense – the company completed work on setting up facility to undertake fluorination chemical synthesis and initiated process development of a few molecules. The company’s vision of CHEMISTRY 4.0, enabled deployment of new analytical tools to improve process efficiencies. PI Industries is at the cusp of being seen as a diversified chemical company and paving ways into pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, and knowledge chemicals augurs well for shareholders.
