Innova Captab is a pharmaceutical company built on the idea that making medicines for others and selling them yourself are two sides of the same coin. It started in 2006 as a pure contract manufacturer in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, and over two decades layered on its own branded generics business, then bought a distressed API maker to bring raw-material capability in-house. The recurring approach is vertical integration - owning R&D, API production, finished-dose manufacturing, and distribution - so that every rupee spent by a CDMO client or a branded-generics customer flows through more of the company’s own chain.
Business segments
Two engines that feed each other - a contract manufacturing business that supplies the industry’s biggest names and a branded generics business that takes the company’s own labels to pharmacies across India and 60 other countries.
1. CDMO: the factory that pharma companies outsource to
The company makes finished medicines on behalf of other pharmaceutical firms under long-term, cost-plus contracts - it is the manufacturing backbone for over 350 clients, including 14 of India’s top 15 drug companies.
- Cost-plus pricing passes raw-material risk to the customer - the contract price covers conversion, packing, analytical testing and a markup, so when API (active pharmaceutical ingredient) costs rise, the client pays the increase, not Innova Captab.
- Relationships are measured in decades, not quarters - nearly half of all clients have been with the company for more than five years, and almost 80% of CDMO revenue comes from those long-tenure partners, creating a sticky revenue base built on repeat orders and multi-year agreements.
- The dosage-form range is unusually wide - the CDMO offering spans oral solids, oral liquids, dry syrups, dry powder injectables, ointments, and complex delivery forms such as modified-release tablets, tablets-in-capsules, and nano-size formulations that improve how a drug is absorbed by the body.
- Exports are the growth lever - 31% of overall revenue came from outside India in FY26, with the CDMO business serving clients across more than 60 countries and several marquee customers completing audits at the new Jammu facility to qualify it for commercial supply.
2. Branded generics: the company’s own labels on pharmacy shelves
Through a wholly-owned marketing subsidiary, the company sells over 750 branded generic products to a network of more than 6,000 distributors that reach over 250,000 retail pharmacies across India, while also exporting its own brands to regulated markets like the UK and Canada.
- A separate marketing arm keeps the two engines distinct - Univentis Medicare, incorporated in 2015, acts as the domestic branded-generics vehicle and is treated as a CDMO customer by the parent company, which means the manufacturing engine earns a margin even on in-house brands.
- Distribution reach has more than doubled in five years - the domestic pharmacy touchpoint count grew from 95,000 in FY21 to over 250,000 in FY26, supported by an in-house sales force of more than 350 people.
- International registrations are the passport to regulated markets - the company holds UK-MHRA, Health Canada and EU-GMP certifications, and as of March 2024 had 179 active product registrations abroad with another 219 applications in process, allowing it to sell branded generics in markets where regulatory barriers keep out less-certified competitors.
Manufacturing infrastructure
Nine manufacturing blocks across five sites give the company the third-largest tablet and capsule capacity among Indian CDMO players - and the newest site in Jammu comes with government incentives that effectively cut borrowing costs by about six percentage points.
- Five sites, each with a distinct role - Baddi (three blocks, including a dedicated cephalosporin unit), Dehradun (tablets and capsules from the Sharon acquisition), Taloja (API manufacturing, 365 metric tonnes annually), and the greenfield Kathua-Jammu facility (four blocks commercialised in January 2025) together form a multi-location production base.
- Jammu adds capacity and new dosage forms - the ₹480-crore-plus Jammu facility can produce 10,679 million tablets, 1,440 million capsules, 547 million dry powder injections, and 562 million blow-fill-seal units annually, adding parenterals and respiratory respules that the older plants did not offer.
- Regulatory certifications unlock global demand - the Baddi cephalosporin block received UK-MHRA GMP compliance in FY26, and the Jammu facility obtained PIC/S GMP certification through SMDC Ukraine, both of which are prerequisites for supplying regulated international markets.
- Government incentives lower the cost of expansion - the Jammu facility qualifies for a GST-linked incentive equal to 300% of eligible plant-and-machinery investment over ten years, plus a capital interest subvention of 6% per annum on loans, reducing the effective interest cost by roughly 600 basis points.
Research and development
A 60-plus scientist R&D team, a DSIR-recognised lab, and a new centre under development in Panchkula form the product engine that keeps both the CDMO and branded-generics pipelines full.
- Complex formulations are the output - the team has developed differentiated dosage forms such as super-bioavailability capsules, nano-size formulations, modified and sustained-release tablets, and tablets-in-capsules, which are harder for competitors to replicate and command higher value in CDMO contracts.
- R&D spending is small but rising steadily - investment grew from ₹5.70 crore in FY24 to ₹7.00 crore in FY26, funding a team that has doubled in size over the same period.
- The Panchkula centre will focus on generics and complex generics - the new facility was in advanced development as of FY25 and is expected to accelerate the pipeline of products for both the CDMO and branded-generics businesses.
Group structure and partners
Innova Captab sits atop three wholly-owned subsidiaries - a marketing arm, an API-and-formulations unit bought out of insolvency, and a foundation - with no associate or joint-venture entanglements.
- Univentis Medicare is the branded-generics engine - incorporated in 2015, it operates as the domestic marketing and distribution subsidiary and is treated as a CDMO customer by the parent, creating an arm’s-length relationship between the two business segments.
- Sharon Bio-Medicine was acquired through the insolvency process in June 2023 - the acquisition brought API manufacturing in Taloja, formulation capacity in Dehradun, a toxicology research division, and export registrations in regulated markets including Canada, the UK, Europe, Australia, Korea and Vietnam.
- The listed parent runs on SAP - the company operates on an integrated ERP platform with an upgrade to SAP S/4HANA underway, and Sharon has also implemented SAP, giving the group a single technology backbone across manufacturing and distribution.