Generic semaglutide relaunch in November tops Indian drugmaker recovery plan as profit falls

Dr Reddy's Laboratories is counting on a generic semaglutide relaunch in November to lift its earnings, after a September quarter in which profit fell 36% from a year earlier. The generic semaglutide relaunch follows a supply halt tied to scaling up the active ingredient, and the Indian drugmaker says Canada and other markets outside the United States will take the first pens. The plan came with results released on October 23, 2026, alongside an abatacept biosimilar awaiting a US decision in December and a home business that keeps growing.

Q2 FY27 results lean on India and emerging markets

In its Q2 FY27 results, Dr Reddy's reported consolidated revenue of ₹86,708 million, or about ₹8,671 crore, for the quarter to September 30, 2026. One crore is ten million rupees. Revenue was 1.5% lower than a year earlier but 7.4% higher than in the June quarter. Profit attributable to shareholders fell 36% to about ₹925 crore, and EBITDA dropped 24% to ₹1,783 crore, cutting the margin to 20.6% from 26.7%, according to the company's figures as reported by Indian financial outlets. The main drag was North America, where revenue fell 23% to ₹2,489 crore. The company tied that fall to lower lenalidomide sales, its generic of the cancer drug Revlimid, and said the base business still grew by double digits once lenalidomide is left out.

The home market moved the other way. India revenue rose 17% to ₹1,851 crore, and the company put its own growth there at 21% against 14.7% for the Indian pharmaceutical market as a whole. Emerging markets revenue grew 24% to ₹2,059 crore, helped by new launches and currency moves, while Europe edged up 1% to ₹1,393 crore. The Economic Times research desk, ET Intelligence Group, expects the financial year to March 2027, known as FY27, to bring another fall in earnings before a possible recovery in FY28. That is the newspaper's reading, not company guidance. It names three things the rebound depends on: semaglutide, the US abatacept product and continued strength at home.

Semaglutide pens and the November restart

The generic semaglutide relaunch is the nearest trigger in the plan. Dr Reddy's had begun supplying its copy of the Novo Nordisk drug, but supply was cut by what were described as temporary problems in scaling up production of the active pharmaceutical ingredient. The restart is now scheduled for November 2026. Summaries of the results filing say the product holds approvals in ten countries across Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Canada and India. Our earlier report on the three validation batches explains what has to go right in the plant before pens move again. None of the reports on the results gave fresh batch data, so the November date should be read as a company target rather than a confirmed restart.

Dr Reddy's has repeated its target of selling six to seven million pens this year and sees a longer term annual opportunity of 12 to 15 million pens.

The volume goals are large for a company that is still restarting supply. Dr Reddy's has repeated its target of selling six to seven million pens this year and sees a longer term annual opportunity of 12 to 15 million pens. Initial volumes are expected to come from Canada and other international markets, with larger geographies adding meaningful sales only later, according to the Economic Times. Canada matters because copies are already allowed there, as our semaglutide patent expiry map shows. The reported material does not say how the semaglutide pens will be split between countries or what price the company expects. It also does not make clear whether this year means the calendar year or the financial year that ends in March 2027, which changes how hard the target is.

Abatacept biosimilar and the US pipeline

The second growth bet is an abatacept biosimilar for arthritis in the United States, where a regulatory decision is expected in December 2026, according to an Economic Times analysis. Even with approval, sales are likely to build over a few quarters, because adding a new medicine to formulary lists takes time. The company expects meaningful market share in time, and the newspaper counts the product among the most important sources of growth from FY28. Both are expectations, not results. Abatacept is a large protein drug rather than a peptide, so it sits outside this desk's core beat. It still matters here, because it shapes how much the group will depend on semaglutide to rebuild profit over the next two years.

Behind those two products sits a broad US generics pipeline. In the first half of FY27 the company launched 12 products and filed 10 abbreviated new drug applications in North America. It has 80 filings pending, including 27 first to file opportunities and three new drug applications, which the Economic Times expects to keep launches steady. The biosimilar list is also longer. The US Food and Drug Administration approved a rituximab biosimilar for blood cancer, and the company launched a nivolumab biosimilar for cancer in India. Dr Reddy's also partnered with Takeda on the dengue vaccine Qdenga in India, with a private market launch planned for the first half of 2027. None of these are peptide medicines, but together they decide the weight semaglutide must carry.

What remains open for the pen plan

Several basic questions are not answered in the public material. The reports do not say which plant makes the active ingredient after the scale up, whether an outside supplier is involved, or how many pens were sold before supply stopped. They also do not say whether all ten approved markets will restart at the same time in November, or whether some will wait for later batches. Price is another blank. The company has not given a price or a revenue estimate for its semaglutide in the material we reviewed, and it is not clear how much stock pharmacies and distributors still hold. Without those numbers, outside readers cannot yet judge whether the pen targets are cautious, realistic or stretched.

Competition is the other open point. Rival Indian makers are preparing their own copies, and our report on Torrent plans for Brazil shows how quickly launches are lining up in markets where the main patent has lapsed. A late restart would give those rivals more months with doctors and pharmacies in the same markets. Shortages of a popular medicine can also draw unlicensed sellers and fakes, so patients should get semaglutide only on prescription from licensed pharmacies. The next signals to watch are whether pens actually ship in November, the US decision on abatacept in December, and whether the next quarterly results show semaglutide sales as a separate figure.

Conclusion

The generic semaglutide relaunch is now the clearest test of Dr Reddy's recovery story. The company has approvals, a November date and a target of six to seven million pens this year, but its September quarter showed how much one fading product can cost, with profit down 36%. Until pens ship again and sales appear in reported numbers, the targets remain company plans. For patients and pharmacies in Canada, India and the other approved markets, the practical question is whether supply returns on time and then stays steady.