Hyderabad-based drugmaker HRV Pharma is expanding its peptides and oncology capabilities through manufacturing partnerships, seeking to tap niche and complex segments while keeping its business asset-light, a senior executive told Mint.
The pharmaceutical platform, which owns the intellectual property (IP) and regulatory rights to its products while outsourcing manufacturing and commercialization to partners, is investing about ₹150 crore in dedicated capacity for the two segments.
The firm has signed an agreement with Hyderabad-based Arene Lifesciences to jointly invest ₹50 crore in a dedicated peptide facility, on commercial-stage and new-to-generic synthetic peptides across multiple therapeutic areas, with HRV retaining ownership of regulatory assets, product IP, and global commercialisation rights. Arene will own the facility, while HRV will underwrite capacity exclusively for its requirements.
It is also in the process of investing ₹100 crore in a manufacturing facility for high-potency oncology active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), which is likely to be announced shortly.
Anshu Shrivastava, director of strategy and corporate development at HRV Pharma said the company has "inverted” the traditional approach of making a product and then finding a market. “We work with customers, identify the right product and then choose the right partner to manufacture it. This gives us control over both the IP side and the customer side. We, in turn, become the CDMO (contract development and manufacturing organisation) client for the manufacturing partner,” he said.
The peptide business is expected to begin contributing to HRV’s financial performance from fiscal year 2028, Shrivastava said. Peptides are short chains of amino acids used by the body as building blocks for proteins.
New-age opportunity
Calling peptides a “new age opportunity”, Shrivastava pointed to the US FDA’s July panel which voted to ease restrictions on controversial peptides that are not approved but widely used, like BPC-157 for inflammation. An FDA expert panel in July voted to allow compounding of six peptides, including BPC-157, Semax and MOTS-c.
“Because of our model, we can get to this opportunity the fastest. We have been working with certain manufacturers in anticipation of this ruling from the FDA. Our initial test batches are already in place,” said Shrivastava, pegging the total addressable opportunity for peptides in regulated markets at $2 billion.
While the regulatory pathway is still evolving, HRV plans to manufacture at a US FDA-grade facility and retain product intellectual property and global commercialization rights. The company expects products to reach the market over the next 12-18 months, with the US as its initial focus.
The strategy is aimed at securing supply before the market becomes crowded, Shrivastava said. “The most important factor with US markets is not pricing but reliability of the supply chain,” he said, adding that dedicated capacity would give HRV an advantage as more competitors enter the segment.
Separately, HRV is setting up a majority-owned joint venture with an Indian-listed company for a dedicated OEL Level 4 and 5 facility designed to handle highly toxic compounds. OEL is the occupational exposure limit
The company sees a gap in the mid-market for reliable suppliers of high-potency oncology APIs and specialised molecules.
HRV expects its revenue to exceed ₹600 crore in FY27, with the US driving a significant part of the growth, founder, managing director and CEO Hari Kiran Chereddi told Mint in an earlier conversation. It is also exploring international acquisitions while continuing to avoid investments in physical manufacturing assets.
The company reported consolidated revenue of ₹417.52 crore and net profit of ₹31.94 crore in FY25, according to the latest filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).