By Rishika Sadam and Kashish Tandon
(Reuters) -Cipla’s global chief executive and managing director, Umang Vohra, will step down at the end of March after almost a decade in the top role, the Indian drugmaker said on Thursday.
Achin Gupta, the firm’s global chief operating officer, will take over from April 1, 2026 for five years, the company said.
Gupta joined Cipla in 2021 and has been in his current role since February. He was the CEO of Cipla’s India business, its biggest, and expanded the company’s chronic therapy drugs.
“I think Gupta’s strength…lies in licensing and M&A and with Cipla now having good cash, we expect he would leverage that experience to put the cash to use,” Vishal Manchanda from Systematix Institutional Equities said.
Vohra told reporters that “if there is a requirement of the board, then obviously, I’m happy to help in whatever form,” but refused to share his plan after he steps down.
NEW STRATEGY FOR CIPLA
There will be “shades of a new” strategy with the new management given the geopolitical sensitivity in some markets, Vohra said, adding that Cipla must become an innovation player over the next five-to-seven years.
“I think there will be more investments in that,” he said.
The firm, India’s third-largest drugmaker by sales, beat quarterly profit estimates on Thursday, driven by strong local demand for its urology, diabetes and cardiac therapy drugs.
Its consolidated net profit rose 3.7% to 13.51 billion rupees ($153.7 million) in the quarter ended September 30, beating analysts’ estimates of 13.47 billion rupees, per data compiled by LSEG.
Total revenue grew 7.6% to 75.89 billion rupees, slightly above expectations of 74.30 billion rupees, helped by a 7% growth in the India market revenue.
Sales in North America stood at $233 million, down from $237 million in the year-ago period.
The company said it expects to launch four major respiratory drugs in the U.S. by the end of 2026, and three peptide-related drugs, which are mostly used for weight-loss treatment.
(Reporting by Rishika Sadam and Kashish Tandon; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
