Suven's big neuroscience bet enters final stretch

The announcements have inspired confidence, according to an investor who has been tracking the company closely this year. Over the last six months, its stock price has shot up 116.99% to ₹326 apiece on National Stock Exchange.

While investors may be excited, promoter and chief executive Venkat Jasti is measured in his approach. The 76-year-old tells it straight: “As of now, it (the opportunity) is zero. Until the check is in the bank, you cannot count on anything in this business.”

Jasti embarked on novel drug research in the notoriously complex CNS space nearly twenty-five years ago. In 2022, he demerged his lucrative contract development and manufacturing business, selling it to private equity firm Advent for ₹6,313 crore. The money was funnelled to aid the drug discovery business.

The innovation pipeline

Suven has one of the deepest innovation pipelines in the country, currently, solely focused on CNS disorders. Its lead drug candidate Masupirdine, indicated to treat agitation in Alzheimer’s dementia, is currently in phase 3 trials, with data read out anticipated by the end of the March quarter.

“Our transformation will be in 2027-28, more or less," he said.

Suven's revenue in FY26 was ₹210.45 crore, and its net loss for the year was ₹2,763.44 crore, driven by research and development and operational costs of ₹2,916 crore through the year.

Its drug candidate for narcolepsy is also in phase 3 trials, while two drugs—Usmarapride to treat cognitive impairment related to Parkinson’s Disease and Ropanicant to treat major depressive disorder—are in phase 2 trials. In June, the firm announced positive top-line proof-of-concept results for Ropanicant.

The risk in CNS drug discovery is extremely high, with a success rate of about 0.5%. “The reason is that for all other diseases, you have quantitative measurements of the outcomes,” said Jasti. “But how do you measure memory? How do you measure pain?”

CNS clinical trials use rating scales, rather than biomarkers such as blood glucose levels or heart rate, to measure subjective symptoms, cognition, and efficacy. This, however, has led to huge lacunae in global research, which Suven can capitalize on.

There has also been renewed interest from big pharma in CNS therapies. American multinational Bristol Myers Squibb's schizophrenia drug Cobenfy, approved in 2024, is projected to generate more than $3 billion in annual sales by the early 2030s, while US-based pharma company Eli Lilly's early Alzheimer's therapy Kisunla, also approved in 2024, is widely expected to become a multi-billion-dollar product as uptake accelerates.

“These are all very large markets, whether it is Alzheimer's or depression. And there is an unmet need because the quality of outcomes is something you can significantly enhance in both these conditions," said Vishal Manchanda, pharma analyst at financial services platform Systematix Group.

“While there are existing treatments, there is a very large opportunity to enhance outcomes on existing drugs,” Manchanda added.

While the opportunity for Suven can be very large, there’s a caveat. “They don’t need to just be successful in phase three trials, they have to be adequately successful…they have to beat the benchmarks that are already set,” he said.

Jasti said that over the years, big pharma firms have become increasingly risk-averse, waiting until the drug is ready to market before stepping in, unless it's a new modality. But the payoffs are huge.

In January 2026, Swiss drugmaker Novartis signed a $1.7 billion deal with SciNeuro Pharmaceuticals to develop potential antibody treatments for Alzheimer's disease. In 2025, American pharma giant Johnson & Johnson agreed to acquire New Jersey-headquartered Intra-Cellular Therapies for about $15 billion, largely to gain access to Caplyta, a drug to treat depression and bipolar disorder, and its neuroscience pipeline. Sales of Caplyta are projected to reach $4 billion a year by 2030.

Built from the ground up

Jasti did not initially anticipate taking the drug development all the way through phase 3 trials. Indian firms and biotechs have typically preferred the licensing or partnership route, with big pharma to share the cost and risk of development.

With big pharma’s risk aversion, they’ve had to go the distance. “We had to build up the knowledge and the infrastructure. And of course, we had to have the staying power and the perseverance to proceed further,” he said.

His research team was built entirely in-house, largely with fresh recruits. He hired a handful of senior scientists, experienced in other therapy areas. “They went into the white space and saw what the existing molecules are, which targets have to be taken, and why they failed. Based on that, they started funnelling. And finally arrived at a candidate after sifting through 300 to 400 molecules,” he said.

Based on this, they started recruiting freshers and training them. Recruiting people in India with four to five years of experience was risky, said Jasti. They have that generics mindset [by then],” he said.

While funding is a big challenge, what Suven lacks, compared to big pharma firms, is a lack of marketing knowledge for novel drugs. “The same molecule can be positioned in different ways, with different indications,” said Jasti.

The learning curve here has been steep. While Jasti characterized drug discovery as a “zero to one sum game”, he believed it would only take one big success for a mindset shift among Indian investors.

Jessica has been tracking the pharmaceutical, life sciences and healthcare sector for Mint since November 2024. Based in the country's financial capital, she reports on everything to do with health and medicines. This includes corporate action, patent wars, deals, startup activity and consumer trends. She also keeps a keen eye on the ever-evolving world wellness and preventive health, which moves faster than regulation can keep up. She has a deep interest in what the future of health looks like and how science, innovation, policy and company decisions inform and impact the health of citizens. She has been a reporter for five years, working with publications like The Core and News18 prior to this, covering various sectors like automobiles, real estate, energy, sustainability and urban mobility. Jessica has a bachelor’s degree in English from St Xavier’s College, Mumbai and a postgraduate diploma in media from Sophia’s College, Mumbai. Her work is driven by a desire to decode how macro decisions and events alter and shape the lives of ordinary people. Drop her a mail or a message to discuss business scoops, exciting new medicines and inventions, or your latest wellness routine.