Sai Life Sciences CFO sees pharma outsourcing as long-term growth driver, expects 10-15% sustainable CDMO growth

Sai Life Sciences is betting on pharma outsourcing as a key growth driver over the next few years, with plans to expand its discovery and development capabilities.

The company has lined up a total investment of ₹700 crore for the current financial year, with a significant portion earmarked for Genome Valley.

“We are adding additional discovery capability, we have acquired around 10 acres of land, in addition to existing facilities. That will help us expand our discovery services capability,” said Siva Chittor, Whole-time Director and CFO of Sai Life Sciences, in an interview to CNBC-TV18. He added that the company is also investing in process research, peptide research and new biology capabilities.

Chittor noted that global pharma companies are increasingly looking at India for strategic outsourcing opportunities, driven by diversification and regulatory factors. “For a long time, India has not had its due share in the new chemical entity business, and that is changing. What we are seeing today is customers discussing more strategic outsourcing, with companies trying to choose long-term partners,” he said.

The China+1 strategy and the US Biosecure Act are also pushing global innovators to rebalance their portfolios. Sai Life Sciences has already executed over a dozen tech transfer projects where customers sought a non-Chinese source for commercial supplies. Some of these projects have already gone live, while others are in the pipeline.

Chittor believes the industry will give Indian CDMOs enough time to build scale. “Pharma, by nature, is a little conservative. They will start slower and give you time to grow. As long as there is no stoppage in investments from the right companies, outsourcing will continue to grow,” he said.

On financial performance, Chittor said numbers have been strong for the last three quarters, with Sai Life Sciences meeting or beating estimates. However, he pointed out that CDMO revenues are not always linear. “Within the CDMO industry, quarterly numbers are always very difficult to predict because we don’t control the end product. Our longer-term trend is a 10–15% growth rate. That’s what we have presented for the CDMO business, and we continue to see that trajectory,” he said.

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