Cadila's new MD Shravil Patel aims to double revenues in 5 years

MUMBAI: At 38, Shravil Patel, the newly appointed managing director at Cadila Healthcare, might be the youngest among top pharma executives. But with the backing of his father, the aggressive pharma veteran Pankaj Patel, Shravil says he would aim to double the company's revenue -more than Rs 9,600 crore on a consolidated basis in fiscal 2017- in the next five years.

Cadila is one of the few Indian generic drug makers that managed to scrape through US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) inspections, fixing the quality concerns raised by the American regulator within six months.

“In last three to four years, I have been working with the manufacturing team on quality, like automation, improving processes (and) having the right set of people in the right functions. That has helped to stay above board,“ Shravil told ET. “But still, it is an ongoing process, we continue to learn from all warning letters and 483s (to notify objectionable conditions) that FDA is issuing to other companies. That's the only way for us to learn.“

With a doctoral degree from University of Sunderland, Shravil is the third generation Patel to lead Cadila. The company was founded by his grandfather Ramanbhai Patel in 1952. A split in the family business led to the creation of Zydus Cadila.

Shravil is credited for turning around the consumer healthcare business of the company by launching Zydus Wellness. He is clear that though the senior Patel has mentored him to take the top job, the face of the company will continue to be his father who will look at compliance, new business opportunities and strategy.

In the long-term, Cadila will focus on bringing innovative drugs, including a range of biosimilars (copy of biologic medical products), he said. The company is particularly betting big on diabetes drug saroglitazar, which is in phase 2 trial in the US.

“We are not working on one initiative ... we have good vaccine portfolios with 18 approvals, where we will participate in the public and private market,“ Shravil said. On the acquisitions front, the company will focus on specialty businesses like controlled substances (such as California-based Sentynl Therapeutics that it acquired).

In India, it would go for brands that have a strong connect with physicians and consumers.

In the coming years, the company expects the contribution of its US business to revenue to move up to nearly 50% from 40% now, as it expects a long list of approvals from the US FDA.