For a company that turns 90 this year, Cipla is making a concerted attempt to sound less like an institution and more like a brand still in the making. “I would say it is a 90-year-old startup,” Achin Gupta, global chief operating officer, told financialexpress.com. That remark, part metaphor, part positioning, captures the pharmaceutical major’s current dilemma: how to reconcile its legacy-led trust with a category that is evolving faster than ever, driven by digital consumers, wellness trends and the rise of category-specific challenger brands.
Despite its longevity and market share, Cipla has largely remained outside India’s popular brand consciousness, especially compared to younger wellness brands built on storytelling, access and aspiration. Now, with pressure mounting from both global innovation and domestic competition, Cipla is tweaking the script.
Cipla reported a revenue from operations of Rs 27,548 crore in FY25, up from Rs 25,455 crore in FY24, while profit before interest, exceptional items and tax rose to Rs 5,273 crore from Rs 4,106 crore in the previous fiscal, as per company filings.
Recasting respiratory
Cipla’s biggest brand win in recent memory came when Foracort, its respiratory product, became the top-selling pharma brand in India in 2023 as per IQVIA rankings. It marked the first time a respiratory drug topped the charts in a country where the category remains stigmatised. “Forget the interiors, even in metros, respiratory is still considered a taboo,” Gupta said.
But while Cipla has been in the category for decades, the shift in perception is relatively recent and brand-led. Campaigns like Berok Zindagi and Breathefree, though subtle, have aimed at normalising inhaler use. In a market where disease awareness often trails availability, Cipla’s push to turn therapy adoption into a consumer conversation is also an attempt to make the company visible beyond the doctor’s clinic.
OTC and wellness, with caveats
The company is now India’s second-largest OTC player by turnover. Products like Nicotex, Omnigel, and Cipladine lead their respective categories, but few consumers associate them with Cipla. This is partly by design, Gupta explained. “We try to make it more inclusive… more of common characters as opposed to celebrities,” he said, noting that campaigns for these products are designed to resonate in Tier 2 to Tier 6 towns.
Yet that anonymity is a double-edged sword. While Cipla’s products are widely distributed, helped by a chemist network the company routinely credits, it leaves the parent brand with limited equity among India’s growing wellness-first demographic. Younger competitors in the D2C segment, often backed by content marketing and lifestyle branding, have no such ambiguity.
New markets, old challenges
Cipla currently draws 42% of its revenue from India. South Africa and the U.S. are treated as additional “home markets”. In the U.S., the company generated $934 million in revenue last year, mostly through generic respiratory drugs. Gupta said European emerging markets could be a fourth home market, with more investments to follow.
The larger strategic shift, however, is Cipla’s interest in being more than a pill company. Devices like Cippoint, a point-of-care diagnostic kit, and Spirofy, a handheld spirometer, mark its interest in what Gupta called the “continuum of care”, not just products but diagnostics, services and digital adherence tools. “We go where the patient need is,” he said.
But Cipla’s longer-term risks remain tied to the systemic issues within Indian pharma: inconsistent quality and counterfeit drugs. “We need to constantly upgrade on quality,” Gupta said. “There’s still a fair amount of scale in the industry.” Innovation, too, is a pressure point. “Patients are not going to settle for less than whatever is best. That’s the opportunity—and the challenge.”
With GLP-1s like Ozempic and Monjaro entering the global obesity treatment spotlight, Cipla is eyeing the segment but hasn’t yet launched in India. “It remains a very high area of interest,” Gupta said.
Cipla’s brand story, in many ways, is still being written. It may have arrived early to India’s pharmaceutical revolution. But it now finds itself playing catch-up in a marketplace where category dominance is no longer enough, and trust alone doesn’t guarantee attention.