In 1973, Samprada Singh and his brother Basudeo Narayan Singh moved from Patna to Mumbai with INR 5 lakh and a conviction born from decades in pharmaceutical distribution: India needed a company that could manufacture and sell anti-infective medicines at scale. Five decades later, Alkem is India’s fifth-largest pharmaceutical company by domestic sales, built on the therapeutic categories that treat the illnesses patients need to cure today, not tomorrow.
Before founding Alkem, Samprada Singh spent two decades understanding the Indian pharmaceutical market from the ground up. In 1953, he opened a medical store. Six years later, he started a pharmaceutical distribution company — Laxmi Pharma — and later Magadh Pharma in Patna. By the time he arrived in Mumbai in 1973, he knew precisely what India needed most: affordable, reliable anti-infective medicines produced by an Indian manufacturer.
Alkem’s first products were anti-infective and gynaecological formulations, initially contract-manufactured. But Singh was not building a marketing company. He was building a manufacturing one. By 1978, just five years after founding, Alkem established its first manufacturing unit in Taloja, near Mumbai. A second facility followed in Mandva, Gujarat, in 1992. Each expansion was driven by the same logic: own the production, control the quality, and compete on therapeutic outcomes rather than price alone.
The breakthrough came in 1989 with the launch of Taxim, a cephalosporin antibiotic that would become one of the most successful anti-infective brands in Indian pharmaceutical history. In 2006, Taxim became the first anti-infective drug in India to cross INR 1,000 million in domestic sales — a milestone that confirmed Alkem’s position as the country’s leading anti-infective company.
A company built on anti-infectives could have remained a single-therapy specialist. Many do. But Alkem used its anti-infective dominance as a foundation for expansion into adjacent acute therapy categories where the same physician relationships and the same distribution infrastructure could be leveraged: gastrointestinal medicines, pain management, vitamins and minerals, dermatology, and cardiovascular therapies.
The strategy was methodical. In 1996, Alkem launched Clavam — a clavulanic acid combination antibiotic that became a direct competitor to GlaxoSmithKline’s Augmentin. It was a signal that Alkem could compete not just on price but on formulation innovation within the acute therapy space. Brand after brand followed: each one targeting a high-volume therapeutic category where Indian physicians needed reliable, affordable options.
By FY 2024, Alkem’s domestic business crossed INR 4,000 crore in international revenue for the first time, and the company achieved net profit before tax exceeding INR 2,000 crore — milestones that reflected the compounding effect of a multi-therapy domestic franchise supplemented by growing international operations.
Alkem’s US journey began in 2003 when the company established an R&D facility for ANDA development at its Taloja campus. The first ANDA filing came in 2007 for amlodipine, a cardiovascular generic, which received FDA approval in 2009. It was a modest beginning — but it established the regulatory infrastructure and the institutional knowledge that would scale.
Two decades later, Alkem holds over 100 ANDA approvals from the US FDA and operates a manufacturing facility in the United States alongside its 12 Indian plants. The US business contributes approximately 22% of consolidated revenue, driven by a growing portfolio of generic formulations in cardiovascular, central nervous system, gastrointestinal, and anti-infective categories. In FY 2025, international revenue accounted for nearly 30% of the total — a meaningful shift for a company that was almost entirely domestic-focused as recently as the early 2010s.
The company also received EU GMP certification for its Baddi manufacturing facility following inspection by the German Health Authority, and in April 2026 committed to expanding its greenfield formulations facility in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, increasing the investment from INR 533 crore to INR 1,036 crore. These are not incremental steps. They are capital commitments to a multi-decade international growth thesis.
Alkem’s revenue geography reflects a company in transition from domestic champion to international contender. India remains the core, contributing approximately 71% of consolidated revenue in FY 2025, with leadership positions in anti-infectives, gastrointestinal, pain management, vitamins, and dermatological therapies. The United States contributes approximately 22%, making it the largest international market. The remaining 7% comes from other international markets where Alkem is building therapeutic beachheads across Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
Alkem operates 13 manufacturing facilities — 12 in India and one in the United States — producing formulations across tablets, capsules, liquids, injectables, and topical preparations. The facilities hold approvals from the US FDA, the World Health Organization, the European Medicines Agency, and multiple national regulatory authorities. The company’s Baddi facility recently received EU GMP certification following German Health Authority inspection, while the Daman and Taloja facilities serve as primary US FDA-registered production sites.
With over 100 ANDA approvals on file with the US FDA, 164 US FDA drug approvals (163 ANDAs, 1 NDA), 7 Indian Patent Office grants, and a new INR 1,036 crore greenfield facility under construction in Ujjain, Alkem’s manufacturing and regulatory infrastructure continues to expand — building the capacity needed to support both the domestic franchise and the growing international business.
Sources: Alkem Laboratories Annual Reports FY2020–21 through FY2024–25. Alkem Q4 FY25 Earnings Presentation. US FDA facility registration and ANDA approval data. Indian patent office records.