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Three of the eight own manufacturing plant in America or Europe: Piramal five sites, Gland three, Syngene one — Baltimore, bought and not yet running. Sai Life has Western addresses too, in Boston and Manchester, but they are research sites its own finance chief calls “satellite centers”.

Those three are the three lowest margins in the sector.

Piramal 10.4%, Syngene 24.6%, Gland 25.3%. The five that manufacture only in India earn 39.3%, 32.6%, 28.8%, 28.7% and 26.2% — Sai Life among them, at 28.8%, which is roughly what a Western lab costs you against a Western factory.

Gland’s French business turned €48 million into €2 million last quarter — 4% against 28% at group. The clearest measure of what a Western plant costs is the wage bill.

Gland’s employee cost was 7.7% of sales in FY22. In FY26 it is 25.3%. Revenue rose 1.46 times. The wage bill rose 4.81 times.

Asked whether big pharma now prefers Western sites, the chief executive of the company with the most of them answered in two words:

“Not really.” Peter DeYoung · Piramal Pharma · 30 July 2026