Mankind was established in 1991, almost a decade after the industry leaders of today including Dr.Reddy’s and Sun Pharma, but has grown considerably faster than its contemporaries... One reason for this is that unlike major drug makers who have a large portfolio of hundreds of products, mankind prefers to concentrate on a much smaller number of high value products. “they don’t bother with smaller products with a potential value of less than Rs.5 crore,” says a long-time industry watcher. thus Health OK, their OTC product, which is a combination of vitamins and nutritional medicines was able to generate Rs.50 crore in revenue within a year of its launch in 2014-15. This is also the approach adopted by some multinationals like Sanofi, whose CEO Chris Viebacher said, that his company obtained a lion’s share of its revenue from just 15 top selling patented products...

1. BUSINESS INDIA u THE MAGA ZINE OF THE COR POR ATE WOR LDCorporate Reports
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A
dvertising of some products
such as Preganews, Acnestar
and Unwanted-72 on televi-
sion and other mass media platforms
has brought Mankind Pharma into our
drawing rooms during the past couple
of years. Though they are endorsed by
leading celebrities such as Amitabh
Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor, tennis
player Sania Mirza and several oth-
ers, this category of products accounts
for just about R400 crore, which is
less than 10 per cent of Mankind’s
FY19 revenues of R4,900 crore (EBIDTA:
18 per cent)
These products, known in the phar-
maceutical industry as OTC (over-the-
counter) products, have to be marketed
through retail channels just like cos-
metics and other FMCG products.
This is in sharp contrast to the “pre-
scription products” in which mar-
keting strategy is focused on the
prescribing doctors.
Mankind was established in 1991,
almost a decade after the industry
leaders of today including Dr Red-
dy’s Laboratories and Sun Pharma,
but has grown considerably faster
than its contemporaries, at least in
recent years.
One reason for this is that unlike
major drug makers who have a large
portfolio of hundreds of products,
Mankind prefers to concentrate on a
much smaller number of high value
products. “They don’t bother with
smaller products with a potential value
of less than R5 crore,” says a long-time
industry watcher. Thus Health OK,
their OTC product, which is a combina-
tion of vitamins and nutritional med-
icines was able to generate R50 crore
in revenue within a year of its launch
in 2014-15. This is also the approach
adopted by some multinationals like
Sanofi, whose CEO Chris Viebacher
once told reporters in Hyderabad that
his company obtained a lion’s share of
its revenue from just 15 top selling pat-
ented products!
A case in point is their latest product,
ageneric(off-patent)versionofAbbott’s
Duphaston (chemical name: dydroges-
terone), which was announced earlier
this month. The brand name was not
revealed because the CDSO (Central
Drug Standards Control Organisation)
has not yet accorded permission to
market the drug. “We expect the new
product to generate
sales revenues of about
R50 crore, which repre-
sents about 12.5 per cent of
the potential market in the country,”
says R.C. Juneja, founder-chairman of
Mankind. He also added that the com-
pany would manufacture the Active
Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) as well
as formulation (the Finished Dosage
Form in which the end-user can con-
sume the drug). The entire production
of the API would be utilised by Man-
kind itself, and they have no plans to
sell it to other Indian companies.
Expansion success
He bases his hopes on the fact that
dydrogesterone is useful in a wide
variety of gynecological disorders
including primary infertility, repeated
miscarriage and even as a part of hor-
monal therapy for menopause. Its role
in the treatment of infertility holds
great promise because surveys have
shown that almost 10 per cent of all
married couples in India are likely to
suffer from primary infertility, that
they are not able to produce their first
offspring. On the international market,
The Mankind management has recorded
a steady expansion from time to time
Unique
management
R.C. Juneja and
son Arjun: high
value products

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this medicine was available for almost
three decades but was withdrawn from
the global market in 2008 for “com-
mercial reasons.” Estimates show that
between 1977 and 2005, dydrogester-
one was administered to 38 million
women worldwide.
This, however, is no flash in the
pan, for Mankind has a long history of
success in the Indian as well as global
market. As far back as FY 2009-2010,
the company had a topline of R1,043
crore, which grew rapidly to R3,000
crore by FY 2013-14. In the earlier part
of the current decade, the company
clocked a revenue growth of almost
50 per cent while the growth figures
for the past two-three years were more
modest at 24-25 per cent. However,
since it is a privately-held company,
the profits, quantum of debt on their
books and other financial details are
not available in the public domain.
Financial numbers apart, the Man-
kind management has also recorded
a steady expansion in terms of set-
ting up new manufacturing facili-
ties, acquiring smaller companies in
India as well as abroad, and reaching
to global markets from time to time.
Their latest foray was into the highly
competitive US market, which they
entered in 2016-17. Earlier in 2013-14,
they made inroads into the CIS coun-
tries such as Uzbekistan and Tajikistan,
apart from introducing their products
in Bahrain in the Gulf region. That
year, they were ranked as the 7th larg-
est pharma company in India (accord-
ing to the healthcare market research
agency IMS, which is now known as
IQVIA). Before that, they had expanded
their operations to India’s neighbours
like Nepal and Bangladesh, as well as
the Philippines, Vietnam, etc.
On the front of acquisitions, their
recent accomplishment was the take-
over of JPR Labs in 2017, which was just
five years old and based in Visakhapat-
nam. It was quite well positioned at that
time to create a presence in the US mar-
ket through its subsidiary, JPR Labs Inc.
Its product range included Pantopra-
zole, Omeprazole, etc (which are used
for the treatment of acidity), Olmesar-
tan (for high blood pressure), domperi-
done (for nausea and vomiting), etc. It
also manufactured intermediates for
Atorvastatin (the cholesterol-lowering
drug) and other products. Needless to
say, this entire portfolio came to Man-
kind in a bunch.
Some years before they acquired
JPR, Mankind bought the rights to
Longifene, a medicine for allergic con-
ditions affecting the eyes and nose,
apart from motion sickness, from UCB
Belgium. Longifene is now an impor-
tant member of the Mankind portfo-
lio and now competes directly against
about a half dozen other brands
belonging to Minova Life Sciences,
Ikon Remedies, SSM Pharma and Lem-
ford Biotech.
Winning strategies
In another interesting development,
the management decided in 2017 to
branch off into an apparently unre-
lated area – that of Pathology and
Diagnostics. In August 2017, their diag-
nostics brand – Pathkind Labs – came
into being. Spearheading the effort
was Sanjeev Vashishta, who was CEO
of SRL Diagnostics, and he quit to set
up the new venture. Now at the end
of two years and three months, they
have 46 pathology labs and 440 collec-
tion centres.
Pathkind was conceived with an
objective to reach out to people in
remote towns and cities, away from
the large metros, with state-of-the-art
labs to be run by qualified MD pathol-
ogists. This is in sharp contrast to the
thousands of uncertified and unac-
credited labs that abound in the
smaller locations.
“Out of the 46 labs, we have 10
labs inside hospitals and this number
is growing impressively. Our business
partners who run the hospitals see tre-
mendous value generation and a win-
win by letting us run their labs in the
hospitals. Then they are able to con-
centrate on providing healthcare with
focus on patient centricity and leave
pathology to us as it is our core compe-
tence. Outsourcing the lab to a capable
partner not only helps the hospitals to
de-risk their financial model but also
gives them additional time to focus
on something which is core to them,”
says Vashishta.
Their sizeable range of products is
manufactured at 21 state-of-the-art
manufacturing facilities in various
locations like Paonta Sahib, Himachal
Pradesh, Sikkim, Vizagand, Rajas-
than. Most of these factories have
been built at Special Economic Zones
set up by the respective state govern-
ments because special financial incen-
tives can be had at these places. All the
manufacturing facilities are designed
in compliance with the US FDA as
well as the requirements of the WHO
GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices
required by the World Health Orga-
nization). Approval of manufactur-
ing facilities by the US FDA is essential
for the company to market its prod-
ucts in the US. Likewise, the WHO GMP
certification enables these products to
be sold in countries where the WHO
funds a wide variety of national health
programmes.
Other large pharmaceutical compa-
nies also adopt some of the strategies
and approaches that Mankind does.

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But the company often manages to
leave its competitors far behind. In cer-
tain years, the IMS audit revealed that
more than 60 of its brands featured
among the top five in their respective
ranking, of which 28 brands were at
the top of the table. This is because of
certain unique features of its manage-
ment style.
“Their secret lies in that they cover
every doctor in a given area. Thus if
there are 300 cardiologists in a city or
town, most leading companies would
focus on the top 100 and leave out the
rest. Mankind will touch base with
each and every one of them,” says Dr
Anup Soans, the Editor of Medicine-
Man, an online monthly magazine
that focuses on issues related to phar-
maceutical sales and management.
Thus in the case of Dydrogesterone,
they would not only contact the entire
membership of the FOGSI (Federation
of Obstetrics and Gynecologists Societ-
ies of India) but also the small associa-
tions of gynecologists in every district
and town. What could be described,
in other contexts as carpet bombing
or saturation coverage, is a way of life
at Mankind.
Besides,atthehighestlevelare40-50
senior management executives who
have spent a large part of their work-
ing life with Mankind and are fiercely
loyal to the founders. In addition, the
Mankind bosses do not shift their
executives around from one geograph-
ical area to another. When someone
is promoted, they continue to serve at
a higher position but in the same dis-
trict. They can therefore retain their
customer base and their relationship
with the prescribing physicians. This
is a major difference from most other
companies where a promotion is most
commonly accompanied by a transfer
of the executive concerned.
Personal attention
Also, the regional managers are
empowered to a great extent. They
are even authorised to appoint peo-
ple and expand their teams, depend-
ing on local requirements. So when
the management meetings take place
at the national or sub-national level,
you could find one RM with 200 peo-
ple reporting to him, while another
could have just 20-30!
When some colleague faces a per-
sonal problem such as illness in the
family, or other exigencies, the entire
team rises to the occasion and arranges
whatever is necessary. The senior man-
agement also chips in with its own con-
tribution. A lot of recruitments take
place through references from exist-
ing employees, which brings a lot of
accountability for the new appointees.
Mankind has one of the lowest
attrition rates among employees –
approximately 5-8 per cent, while the
corresponding figure in a lot of other
medium-sized companies could be as
high as 20 per cent. Moreover, when
potential candidates are interviewed,
they are not rejected summarily. They
are given useful feedback as to person-
ality traits and other aspects that need
to be improved. Also, promising can-
didates, who cannot be appointed at a
given time, are kept on a waiting list.
They are summoned again after two-
three months for recruitment in a
subsequent batch. Consequently, pro-
spective employees often pass up other
offers to wait for an opportunity.
In their corporate office in Delhi,
two floors are dedicated to continu-
ous training and monitoring of MSRs.
They are given opportunities to inter-
act with senior executives who have
worked in leading MNCs and other
industry leaders but have quit and
joined Mankind.
During their work, the MSRs are
given full freedom to do their work,
while it is supervised by a hierarchy
of senior executives. As a result, peo-
ple usually don’t quit the company.
This benefits the company as a whole
because the marketing efforts are quite
consistent. The prescribing doctors do
not encounter a new sales representa-
tive every few months.
Another tactic is to invite high
value prescribing doctors outside their
place of work for one-on-one meetings
with the company’s medical advisors
or medical members of the Product
Management Team. The doctors are
compensated for their time while they
discuss the details of their products
and the medical condition they are
used for. The objective is to get qual-
ity time and undivided attention of
the doctor as opposed to the few min-
utes available in the doctors’ consult-
ing rooms. This practice is not unique
to Mankind, but is also followed by
some MNCs when a high value prod-
uct is at stake.
With these methods of manage-
ment, Mankind manages to punch
above its weight, and put its sales force
of 13,000-odd people to excellent use.
Their current revenue target of R5,600
crore for FY20 and R6,600 crore for
the following fiscal year is therefore
achievable. Though they are unwilling
to reveal their profits or if there is any
debt on their books, they appear to be
sitting on a pile of cash.
Given that they are such a closely
held company, they are probably not
going to even think of an IPO anytime
soon. Also, since the founder’s son,
Arjun Juneja, is director of operations,
and the managing director is also from
within the family, they are not likely
to sell out until the company becomes
much, much bigger.
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