Bengaluru, India: July 24, 2014

Commenting on the quarterly performance and highlights, Chairman and Managing Director, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw stated,“Our revenue growth this quarter has been muted. Our business performance reflects the challenges that we are temporarily facing in some of our key markets especially in the Middle East. We are working towards diversifying our regional dependencies to diminish the impact of such externalities. However, we have sustained our operating margins and profits despite increase in costs. Our business profitability has remained intact indicating the benefits of portfolio optimization. Our development pipeline across biosimilars and novel candidates continues to progress well. We remain committed towards improving our performance in the coming quarters”.

Highlights:

• Biocon files its first set of ANDAs, targets the US generics market
• Extension of the research collaboration between Bristol Myers Squibb and Syngene
• Appointment of Mr. Siddharth Mittal as Chief Financial Officer, Biocon

Business Performance

Financial Highlights: Q1 FY15 (In Rs Crores)

Revenue : 742

R&D Expenses: 31     (6% of Biopharmaceutical sales)
EBITDA: 191             (EBITDA Margin: 26%)
PAT:  103                  (PAT Margin: 14%)

Revenue Breakup:

• Biopharmaceuticals: 547
• Research Services: 172
• Other Income: 23

Biopharmaceuticals

Biopharma
The biopharma segment recorded revenues of 436 Crs in Q1FY15.

The biopharma business was impacted this quarter by various external factors including the ongoing geo-political conflicts in the MENA region, affecting the growth of this business. We believe this is a temporary phasing issue as the underlying demand remains robust.  We hope that stability in the region will restore business momentum. We are working towards mitigating the impact of these regional instabilities on our business performance.

This quarter we filed our first ANDAs, targeting the US generics market. This effort is part of our communicated strategy to move up the pharma value chain to enter finished dosages with generic formulations. We continue working towards further optimization of our product portfolio in the small molecules vertical, with a clear focus on profitable growth.

We remain on track to initiate global phase III trials for our biosimilar glargine. Our upcoming insulin facility in Malaysia continues to progress well and we expect the plant to be commissioned, as per plan in the second half of this fiscal.

Branded Formulations
The branded formulations recorded revenues of 111 Crs in Q1 FY15. The vertical grew at 10% YoY, in line with the industry. This quarter, we have reorganized certain divisions within this vertical. The reorganization largely focuses around the cardiology and diabetes divisions to drive synergies around key anchor brands and optimization of product portfolios with a focus on profitability.

Novel Molecules
The initial set of trials for our oral insulin molecule, IN-105, are on track. We continue to engage with potential partners to out-licensing discussions for our novel anti-CD6 molecule, Itolizumab.

Research Services
The research services segment grew by 12% YoY in Q1 FY15, recording revenues of 172 Crs. This quarter witnessed the extension of our research collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb, for 5 years. This extension of our longest standing collaboration, validates our integrated drug discovery model and reiterates our commitment towards quality, world class research.

Commenting on this performance, Peter Bains, Director Syngene International, said, “We have made a steady start to the new fiscal, and will build upon this performance during the course of the year. We have been investing in capacity expansions, some of which will come into play in the latter half of FY15. The new capacities will help us expand our order book and build growth momentum. A key milestone this quarter was the extension of our partnership with Bristol Myers Squibb until the year 2020.”

Appointments:

Mr. Siddharth Mittal, President – Finance has been appointed as Chief Financial Officer of Biocon Limited effective August 01, 2014. He joined Biocon in May 2013 and takes over from Mr. Murali Krishnan, who retires after more than 30 years of distinguished service with the organization.

Siddharth is a Chartered Accountant (India) and a CPA (US) and has more than 15 years of global and diversified experience. Prior to joining Biocon, he was Vice President-Finance and Corporate Controller with a leading US based multinational Information Technology Company based in Bangalore.


Outlook
The inherent growth drivers for our business remain intact and will play out over the course of this year. The progress in our development pipeline (across biosimilars and novel molecules) will help some of our molecules to enter the clinic. However, these milestones are subject to various external dynamics including the business and clinical trial environment in the country. We continue to make investments across infrastructure and people, to support our growth and work steadfastly to deliver strong, sustained value growth to our stakeholders.


About Us
Biocon Limited (BSE code: 532523, NSE Id: BIOCON, ISIN Id: INE376G01013) is a fully-integrated, innovation-led, emerging global biopharmaceutical enterprise serving customers in over 85 countries. It is committed to reduce therapy costs of chronic diseases, like autoimmune, diabetes, and cancer to enable access to affordable healthcare solutions for patients, partners and healthcare systems across the globe. Biocon's key innovations include two novel biologics, BioMAb EGFR® for cancer and ALZUMAb™ for psoriasis. The company has also introduced CANMAb™, the world’s most affordable trastuzumab, for HER2- positive  breast cancer and has pioneered the development of the world's first pichia-based recombinant human Insulin, INSUGEN®  and insulin analog Glargine, BASALOG ®.  archive.biocon.com

Disclaimer
Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements, which are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in such forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations include, amongst others general economic and business conditions in India, our ability to successfully implement our strategy, our research and development efforts, our growth and expansion plans and technological changes, changes in the value of the Rupee and other currency changes, changes in the Indian and international interest rates, change in laws and regulations that apply to the Indian and global biotechnology and pharmaceuticals industries, increasing competition in and the conditions of the Indian biotechnology and pharmaceuticals industries, changes in political conditions in India and changes in the foreign exchange control regulations in India. Neither our company, our directors, nor any of our affiliates, have any obligation to update or otherwise revise any statements reflecting circumstances arising after this date or to reflect the occurrence of underlying events, even if the underlying assumptions do not come to fruition.

Earnings Call
The company will conduct an hour long call at 12:30 PM IST on July 25, 2014 where the senior management will discuss the company’s performance and answer questions from participants. To participate in this conference call, please dial the numbers provided below five to ten minutes ahead of the scheduled start time. The dial-in number for this call is +91-22-3938 1081/ 6746 5891.  Other toll numbers are listed in the conference call invite which is posted on the company website archive.biocon.com. The operator will provide instructions on asking questions before the start of the call. To receive reminders for the earnings call, you can register here. A replay of this call will also be available from July 25, 2014 – August 02, 2014 on +91 22 6181 3322, Playback ID: 311121.  The transcript of the conference call will be posted on the company website within 7 working days of the investor conference call.



For further information, please contact:

Media Relations

Seema Ahuja
Phone: +91 080 2808 2808
Email: seema.ahuja@biocon.com

Rumman Ahamed
Phone: +91 080 2808 2808
Email: rumman.ahmed@biocon.com


Investor Relations

Saurabh Paliwal
Phone: +91 95383 80801
Email: saurabh.paliwal@biocon.com