Virtual pharma API firm HRV preparing for IPO, DRHP likely in H1 of 2027: Sources

HRV Pharma, which provides bulk drugs and formulations without owning any manufacturing plants and claims to be India’s first “virtual pharma API” company, is preparing for an initial public offering by next year, industry executives told ET.

The Hyderabad-based company has hired ICICI Securities and Equirus Capital as bankers and is expected to file its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) in the first half of calendar 2027, subject to market conditions, the executives said. It is planning to raise more than Rs 800 crore, one of them said.

The company did not comment on the IPO plan.


Founder and chief executive Hari Kiran Chereddi said the company was adding dedicated, underwritten capacity at partner facilities to its existing outsourced manufacturing network and predicted its revenue would reach Rs 1,000 crore next fiscal year.

It is also exploring selective acquisitions, particularly for European market access and finished-dosage filings, he said.

The company expects to post a net profit of Rs 80 crore on revenue of Rs 600 crore in the current fiscal 2027, compared with Rs 40 crore on revenue of Rs 310 crore last financial year.

HRV’s asset-light model includes outsourcing production across manufacturing sites while retaining control over products, regulatory filings, customer relationships and commercialisation. It employs fewer than 60 people but works with partners in 54 manufacturing sites. India’s pharma manufacturing capacity is only 45–50% utilised, creating room for asset-light models, said industry experts.

“Everybody likes the virtual pharma story, but the secret sauce is which products you are offering,” Chereddi said.

“Most of the products we look at do not have a large number of existing players,” he said. “For an API (bulk-drug) manufacturing site, we become their capacity aggregator because, for them, we become the customer.”

Recently, HRV said it is investing Rs 150 crore into peptide and high-potency oncology API capacity.

“Peptides are a very active area right now, but I do not want to simply do what everybody else is doing. We are looking at custom peptides and niche opportunities,” the CEO said. “We also see an opportunity in the US market, including the compounding space that is opening up.”

HRV focuses on high value, low competition APIs across therapeutic areas such as CNS, proton pump inhibitors, orphan drugs and complex molecules approaching patent expiry.

Its portfolio spans niche APIs such as pitolisant (used for narcolepsy), resmetirom (used for liver fibrosis), glycerol phenylbutyrate (used for urea cycle disorder), linagliptin and vildagliptin (used for type-II diabetes) vonoprazan (potassium acid blocker) and enclomiphene (used to treat female infertility), reflecting its focus on specialty, rare-disease and differentiated therapies.

The company’s manufacturing partners include Metrochem, Arene Lifesciences and Shodhana Laboratories. All the manufacturing plants are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, except one, he said.

HRV’s revenue mix is balanced across the US, Middle East and Europe.

“Over the last two years, the US has really taken off as the new products we introduced started contributing…Going forward, I see the Americas becoming very significant for us, including both North and South America,” said Chereddi. “Canada is also a market we are looking at, and we are opening up Korea and Japan as well.”