Drugmaker Cipla expects to achieve a greater footprint in the US in 18 to 20 months, its newly appointed Managing Director and Global Chief Executive Umang Vohra told shareholders at the company’s 80th Annual General Meeting that saw the next generation of management stepping up.

The shareholder meeting was the first in several years that was not chaired by Cipla doyen YK Hamied and his speech was read out by niece Samina Vaziralli who is Cipla’s Executive Vice Chairman.

“Her elevation signals the promoter family’s unequivocal resolve to ensure stability and their long term commitment,” Hamied said in his speech of Samina’s appointment, even as shareholders missed the “investor-friendly” Dr Hamied.

Responding to a shareholder query on Cipla’s challenges, Vohra said that not having a major presence in the US was an important gap in the product mix that the management looks to fix with more product launches.

The company had only recently bought two companies in the US and this was expected to shore-up this business, he said.

Peers in the industry already had 40 per cent of their revenues coming from the US, where as Cipla had just 20 per cent, he told a shareholder, adding that the profile was expected to soon change.

In India too, he said, the target was to touch revenues $1 billion, from the present $800 million. He expected more licensing deals to be forged in the domestic market.

Speaking on the exit of Cipla’s earlier head Subhanu Saxena, MK Hamied, Cipla’s Non Executive Vice-Chairman, said that Saxena’s decision was personal and based on family priorities.

On the ₹3.8-crore severance package given to former Chief Financial Officer Rajesh Garg, he said, it was inline with the contract and with necessary approvals.

He categorically also put to rest reports on the possible merger with vaccine major Serum.

There is no such thought process at present, nor is a relationship envisaged, he said, clarifying that Cipla sells some of Serum’s products in Europe.

Cipla clocked a consolidated revenue of ₹13,678 crore for the financial year 2016, with a profit after tax of ₹1,506 crore.

Last year the company increased its research budget to 6 per cent of its turnover.

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