SmallCap Spotlight at Pharma Expo Live 2025! We caught up with Dr. Nandi of Themis Medicare Limited to explore the company’s growth, global exports, and innovation in pharma manufacturing. From pain management to groundbreaking hemostatic agents like Feraculum, Themis is blending tradition with tech, including AI in R&D and a push for “Make in India.”
Discover how Themis is expanding its reach while prioritizing quality, compliance, and affordability.
Anisha Jain: Hello and welcome to Small Cap Spotlight. We’re right here at the Pharma Expo Live 2025. I’m in conversation with Dr. Nandi of Themis Medicare.
Thank you, Dr. Nandi for making time for us. So, Dr. Nandi, before we start discussing what’s happening in the industry, first up, help me understand what does Themis Medicare do?
Dr. Nandi: Themis Medicare is a 52 to 53-year-old pharmaceutical manufacturer, exporter, distributor for pharmaceutical bulk drugs as well as pharmaceutical formulations. So, we are manufacturing and exporting and catering to domestic as well as international market.
When we talk of international market, we talk of ROW, we talk of regulated, semi-regulated, all the markets we are exporting our products.
Anisha Jain: Okay, so what’s the scale and size in the country right now? Where all do you have your factories? How many people? What’s the revenue scale?
Dr. Nandi: We are 600 crore turnover company and we are into mostly 1500 to 2000 people work in this organization. And it is mostly into pain management, into tuberculosis, into anesthetic.
These are the pharmaceutical areas we cater our products. And also we are into niche products like Feraculum, which is a hemostatic agent. And also it is an antimicrobial agent as well.
So, these are the few of our organization.
Anisha Jain: So, if I had to ask you out of 600 crores, let’s say what part comes from exports, what part comes from India, what will be the breakup?
Dr. Nandi: API, most are domestic percentage we’re coming from. And all top manufacturers or top MNCs, Indian MNCs are taking API from us.
But in case of formulation, it is just reverse. Maximum share comes from the export.
Anisha Jain: So, in API, what’s the capacity you have right now? And which are some of the clients if you can name or which are the key molecules and products that you deal in?
Dr. Nandi: In API, we have three plants. Two are in Vapi in the name of Themis Medicare and Gujarat Themis. And we have one plant as Artemis Biotech in Hyderabad. They are API, a bulk drug plant.
One plant in that Hyderabad is EU approved. We are manufacturing Simvastatin, Rosuvastatin. And in Vapi, we are into Rifapentin, Rifaximin.
That is we having an advantage over other plants is that we have fermentation technology of bulk drug manufacturing, means we have both upstream and downstream processing for manufacturing the API. So, but in formulations, we have all pain management, as I explained, the ferriculum part, the ferriculum, all maybe ointment, maybe solution, maybe gel, they’re all manufactured at our Haridwar facility.
Anisha Jain: And you’re saying your facilities are end to end. So, when the product is out, it’s fully packaged and ready to sell. And where do you source your raw materials, etc. from? Are they largely from India? How are they formulated?
Dr. Nandi: Previously, it was from most of the from China, but we have cut down to most of the make in India.
Anisha Jain: That’s what the narrative has been because it’s been very volatile what’s happening in China.
Dr. Nandi: So, we have mostly even when the corona has struck. So, Themis Medicare was one of the first initiative to take the make in India approach.
So, slowly, slowly, we have made the due diligence of our Indian API manufacturer, small or big, whatever be the size. And we assure the quality and compared to China, China, we have just reduced to a minimum.
Anisha Jain: So, in India, also, are you looking at expanding the capacity now? Are you seeing huge demand for your product?
Dr. Nandi: Yes, yes. Now I can see in 2024-25, the demand of market has drastically increased, the domestic has drastically increased. And we are happy to distribute our products in the domestic because it is after all our own country development.
So, what we’re giving to us already we are exporting, because export also needs to be taken care parallelly. But at the same time, domestic market is also emerging and we’re looking forward to have more into the domestic with an affordable price, not at a very price which we cannot afford. So, everyone’s health development in an affordable price that we are trying now.
Anisha Jain: That’s a very good vision to have. So, for this, are you making a lot of investments in your capacity? Are you doing a lot of investment in research and development right now?
Dr. Nandi: Exactly. We have our newly developed research centre at Baroda and they are into F&D, R&D of the formulations.
We have expanded our R&D for API at Hyderabad and Vapi. So, we are investing more and more on the research-driven molecules. Even also, we’re looking forward for AI and ML technologies as a support for new molecules invention to come up with new molecules in silicone medicines and we are in a pipeline to do so.
So, that is our aim.
Anisha Jain: Okay. So, when you say you are known for pain management, tuberculosis, anaesthesia, etc., which of these segments is showing the maximum growth right now?
Dr. Nandi: The anaesthetic segment was good from Themis Bank part of you.
Now, we are also dealing with narcotics because for the pain management and that is also very and Feraculum, which you had just explained, is also gaining a lot of popularity as of now because that is which hemostatic because most of the accidents or some blood loss, it is attacking on that at a very faster rate.
Anisha Jain: So, tell me more about Feraculum because that sounds very interesting in terms of the product development that you have done and you are saying that even the car companies are using it for the safety kits, right?
Dr. Nandi: So, we are supplying this ointment gel, Feraculum gel to most of the car manufacturers. They are providing in their first aid kit into the car manufacturing and we are likely to expand this into not only motor mobiles but to the other pharmaceutical segment as this product is a pharmaceutical product which is recognized by Indian FDA and CDSCO.
So, we are also trying to expand it in the export as well. So, this is a very penetrated molecule of Themis and we are proud to take it to the world now and to have a look on this particular molecule.
Anisha Jain: So, this is developed in-house and it’s sold in your brand name or are you looking at some third-party collaboration also there?
Dr. Nandi: No, we are selling it as our own brand name, no third-party collaboration.
Anisha Jain: So, that’s great to know but also in terms of the other products that you have right now, are you looking at getting a USFD approval as well and expanding in the US markets or are there other geographies that you are looking at specifically?
Dr. Nandi: See, we have a new API, we are starting from API but formulation as of now we are all EU approved, ROW approved and now we are going for Brazilian.
Anisha Jain: And which kind of formulations you said you do?
Dr. Nandi: Injectables and tablets. We have ointments as well, we are promoting the ointments but the main focus is on injectables.
Anisha Jain: And what are the big trends you are seeing in industry in terms of let’s say whether delivery model of let’s say injectables versus tablets versus ointment etc which is gaining ground because in pain management every day you see a new type of product not just ointments, there are pain patches now, there are different effervescence also. So, what kind of developments are happening there?
Dr. Nandi: If from the Themis distribution kind of trend if I see, the injections are gaining much more nowadays. Previously if you see most of the top most MNCs of India are outsourcing the injectables.
Now the time has come, the most of the MNCs are keeping their own injectable unit now. It is again going to a different kind of story. So, Themis is already there with the injectable from previously.
So, we already have our injectables in the market, we have our own manufacturing right from the beginning. But since the demand has increased, so few injectables which are general to the market we are getting it manufactured through P2P. P2P business we are getting it.
Anisha Jain: Okay, that’s good to know but also in terms of the business right now what are the challenges that you are seeing on the horizon?
Dr. Nandi: See the challenge, since I am from the quality, the challenges are day by day increasing. One is to regulatory challenge compliance, that is the biggest one. Secondary to upkeepment of the plant and keep it in pace with the current requirements and all the equipments, the system, upgradation along with the cost of the molecules which we are selling, the service all has to be balanced.
So, that is the biggest challenge nowadays.
Anisha Jain: And how difficult is your job right now in the sense quality assurance, you are looking at injectables which is very closely monitored API, you are looking at getting into stringent regulated markets. How difficult is it for you right now?
Dr. Nandi: See, I should say that if we talk of patient safety or product quality both responsibility comes to QA.
So, I cannot say whether this is okay or this is more responsible. For any products of Themis which is being distributed to the market, QA plays a very crucial role but when I tell QA, QA for me is a team which constitutes of manufacturing, which constitute of packaging development, which constitute of our compliance and regulatory, which comprise of our supply chain management. So, all things come into QA.
So, when I talk of QA of Themis, it’s a team.
Anisha Jain: Since you are talking about the team, also talk to me about the leadership at Themis, the founders, promoters and the top leadership team.
Dr. Nandi: Yeah, actually our founder Dr. Satyanarayan Patel and his son Dr. Dinesh Patel who himself is an eminent scientist.
He has been awarded by several Indian and international awards. He is a scientist basically organic chemistry and he has a very good vision now. His vision is further extended by his son Dr. Sachin Patel.
He himself is a pharmaceutical expert. As an entrepreneur and he has a very lot of vision and very dynamic and I am directly reporting to him and working with him is fantastic. It gives me a lot of boosting and to work with the current aspects.
He is always with current trends, don’t work with the old trends. Adopt current trends, implement current trends. We are as you as per his vision, we are going from paper to paperless.
In the current few months or say within a year, we will be going for paperless digitalization. Themis Medical Limited.
Anisha Jain: That’s great. You don’t only have to be with the current trend, you also have to pre-empt the next trend if you have to stay very relevant and that’s the job that they’re doing. I just wanted to understand from you also lastly, if I can ask you the question on the overall pharmaceutical industry in India because as you said it was earlier a lot of these MNCs companies which was charging a large amount from us but now a lot of these local companies are coming but there was a lack of trust. If you see a brand name which is let’s say global in nature, you try and pick up that medicine versus the domestic manufacturers.
How is that changing?
Dr. Nandi: Now as you know the CDS here, Dr. Raghuvanshi has been quite focusing on the revised schedule M and he is trying to get all these micro, small and mid-size pharmaceutical units to bring to a platform. Themis Medicare quality corporate quality assurance is also working along with the vision of Dr. Raghuvanshi as our P2P manufacturers belong from micro-sized, mid-sized, small-sized and we are helping from our end without any monetary cost. You try to listen means without any monetary cost, we provide them any regulatory support so that not only our products being manufactured, any products being manufactured at their end right from due diligence till approval of the site till the product being manufactured and distributed, we are keeping a monitoring and helping them at every step with their team, with their P2P manufacturing team to attend the compliance.
Anisha Jain: Very good, that’s great to hear because obviously quality has to be controlled even at that level if they are manufacturing for you.
Dr. Nandi: We are not treating them as P2P manufacturers, we are treating them as a Themis partner. So, this activity comes from us from the CQN as a partner for Themis and also as a vision of our founder and our honourable chairman Dr. Sachin Patel and Dinesh Patel.
Anisha Jain: Absolutely, but what would you say about the government policies because in the last few years we have seen a lot of focus on manufacturing in India, exporting from India and all of that. Are the policies you think very lucrative and you know for the businesses to be sustainable?
Dr. Nandi: Now, most of them you see when USFDA comes or MHRA comes or any EU comes or we have approval of that, the facility becomes somewhat great because they have some accreditation but we already have an FDA approval, we don’t feel the greatness. So, it is not of lucrativeness, it is enhancing your own country’s certification to be felt proud by each individual manufacturer.
When I work in London, when I’m working with UK with MHRA, there MHRA is okay just like they feel proud of MHRA, their own country because any pharma company at UK has to be MHRA approved or EU approved in Germany, if you say in France, I’ve seen. So, they have to be approved. So, they feel great in that.
If USFDA comes or Indian FDA comes or PICS comes, it’s okay, fine, it’s having a certification. So, that kind of approach and understanding feeling should come with every Indian. So, I think it’s a right step by this government and hats off to this Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the approach they have been following.
So, that is a great thing happening in India on pharmaceutical grounds. Well, on that positive note, we’ll wrap up the conversation.
Anisha Jain: Thank you so much, Dr. Nandy for making time. Thank you so much for joining us for this chat.