MUMBAI: A year after a landmark deal for an immunotherapy cancer drug with AbbVie, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals is planning a major strategic shift and doubling down to become a global innovation-led pharmaceutical company, underscoring how Indian drugmakers are transitioning beyond generics.
“Over the next 10 years, we think we will be innovative led,” Glenn Saldanha, chairman and managing director, told Mint in an interview. The company is of the view that the transition is already under way, though Saldanha cautioned that the journey to innovation is gradual and fraught with setbacks.
“You've got to really go through it step by step, brick by brick, lots of failures. You have to have a solid stomach for failure,” said Saldanha, who has bet on innovation since he took over the reins of the company in the late 90s.
Glenmark's breakthrough came in July last year, when its US unit Ichnos Glenmark Innovation, Inc (IGI) licensed a blood cancer drug candidate called ISB 2001 to AbbVie to develop, manufacture and commercialize across North America, Europe, Japan and Greater China.
IGI will receive upfront payment of $700 million and up to $1.225 billion in development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments, along with tiered, double-digit royalties on net sales. Saldanha told Mint last year that the deal had “reset the whole agenda for the company.”
IGI had 16 clinical candidates before it advanced to ISB 2001, which targets myeloma cells. Now, IGI has at least three more oncology drugs in the discovery or preclinical stage.
The company plans to submit an investigational new drug (IND) application for its next drug candidate, ISB 2301, which targets solid tumours, later this year. IND approval by the US Food and Drug Administration allows clinical testing of a drug. IGI also plans one IND filing every year going forward.
Competing globally
In innovation, the $1.6 billion Glenmark is no longer competing with domestic peers but on a global scale, with new biotech and big pharma companies that have decades of research work and resources behind them.
“It’s a huge challenge,” said Saldanha.
“Historically, Indian generic companies struggled to compete with Western biotechs because novel drug discovery requires billions in capital and a high-risk tolerance,” Salil Kallianpur, an independent pharma analyst, told Mint. “However, Glenmark has managed to punch above its weight by being highly focused.”
Kallianpur said that by creating IGI, they effectively set up a nimble, biotech entity in the US while leveraging India-based operational cost efficiencies. The company is competing on quality of science rather than sheer volume of assets.
For Saldanha, the way forward is a mix of licensing deals, partnerships and Glenmark’s own commercialization in emerging markets.
“Partnering is going to be a big part of our strategy, going forward. Now within that, obviously, we may keep some rights here and give up some rights, that's all part of the negotiation, but I think the partnering will continue for all the subsequent assets,” he explained.
Glenmark’s business model has evolved. From 2000 to 2004, it invested more in research and development than it earned in profit. From 2004 to 2008, licensing deals generated enough cash to support the broader business.
The company went through a difficult period from about 2012 to 2019, when innovation programmes struggled to deliver meaningful returns. Last year’s AbbVie deal allowed the company to repay all its gross debt.
“Whatever money we poured into innovation over the last decade, we were able to recover all of that through one licensing deal,” Saldanha said.
The company's shares have advanced more than 11% so far in 2026.
Two models
Glenmark expects to operate as two different models within the same company: a cash-generating global pharmaceutical business and a long-term innovation engine.
“There are often times when innovation doesn't succeed, where the business cash flows have to support the innovation and support it for a long period of time. So that's how we built it,” said Saldanha.
Glenmark has adopted a mixed commercialization model for specialty products such as nasal spray Ryaltris, marketing the drug directly in markets such as the US, while partnering in others including China and parts of Europe. For future innovative assets, including oncology candidates, Glenmark plans to retain rights in India and many emerging markets while licensing rights in select developed markets.
Three innovative products are scheduled for launch beginning this year in India and the emerging markets, with ISB 2001 expected to follow. The launches are intended to help build the company’s oncology commercial infrastructure ahead of broader innovation-led expansion.
Apart from its IGI pipeline, the company’s growth plan includes scaling its US generics business, bolstering the high-potential Europe and emerging markets in key specialties—oncology, dermatology and respiratory—and building commercial scale to support its innovative pipeline in several markets.
Investors and experts are watching for updates on ISB 2001. A phase 1/2 multi-cohort combination study in multiple myeloma with other antimyeloma therapies is planned in Q3 of 2026 for the drug, Glenmark said in a June investor presentation.
“We will have to wait and see whether the other molecules also turn out to be that potent and safe (as ISB 2001), depending on what indications they are trying for. But the probability of things going right and their ability to reinvest in R&D will be significantly enhanced once the cashflows start from the AbbVie deal,” said Vishal Manchanda, a pharma analyst at Systematix Group.