When the bourses closed last evening, Amit Bakshi was worth Rs 3,225 crore and Eris Lifesciences, a pharmaceutical company he founded 10 years ago, became a legitimate unicorn. The most profitable, fastest-growing pharma company in five years with the handsomest return on capital employed—the descriptors have been glowing, even as the industry prospects have dimmed of late. The Indian pharma index has been consistently down since 2016, its first decline in five years.
Drug Money
In bad times, a good IPO births a new unicorn
After a long time, Indian pharma is at its lowest ebb, in stocks and sentiments. But Ahmedabad’s Eris Lifesciences beat the odds. Valued at Rs 8070 crore, it’s a pharma company that is making the domestic market look promising once again
Eris makes specialty drugs, which is a subset of the crowded branded generics market. As much as 96% of its prescriptions are written by specialists
Going public was a decision, guided not by the company’s need for funds but the private equity investor, ChrysCapital’s need for an exit
As a purely domestic company, Eris is shielded from the vagaries of the international market, which have battered all the top Indian pharma companies
There’s a market perception that Eris has a push-sales model, as opposed to the more common pull-sales model
