Sekhmet Pharmaventures, a pharmaceutical investment platform backed by Asia-Pacific focused private equity investor PAG, which, so far, picked stakes in two India-based pharma companies including Anjan Drug and Optimus Group, on Monday announced the appointment of Anil Khubchandani as managing director and chief executive officer of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) investment platform.
Khubchandani, who comes with about three decades of experience in strategic partnerships, global sales and marketing, research and development, among others, and was the co-chief executive and whole-time director at Jubilant Ingrevia Ltd, a global integrated life science products and innovative solutions provider in his last role. In his previous stints, he served as the executive vice president of specialty ingredients at Jubilant Life Sciences Ltd.
“I am excited by the opportunity to apply my diverse experience, enhance creativity and innovation, build a strong team, and help realize the growth vision aligned to value systems that PAG and its partners have established for this platform," Khubchandani, an IIT-BHU and IIM Calcutta alumnus said, commenting on his appointment.
Sekhmet Pharmaventures, backed by Asia Pacific-focused investment firm PAG, as well as consortium partners CX Partners and Samara Capital, is the Indian arm of Singapore-based Gamot API Pte. Ltd, which has these PE players as key investors. It has so far invested in two Indian API firms, with its latest investment in September 2022.
In its first bet, it acquired control of Chennai-based Anjan Drug Pvt Ltd in October 2020. In its second bet, the platform acquired a controlling stake in Hyderabad-based Optimus Group in which the PAG-led consortium is said to have invested around Rs 2,000 crore (about $260 million) for around 74% stake each in group entities Optimus Drugs Pvt. Ltd, Optimus Pharma and Optimus Lifesciences.
The second transaction marked the Asia-focused PAG’s $700 million investment in private equity in India over 2020-2022, across multiple sectors.
In March, VCCircle reported that PAG had raised almost a quarter of the targeted amount for its fourth buyout fund, or about $2.2 billion for PAG Asia IV from 28 investors. It aims to raise as much as $9 billion for the vehicle that would be its largest, according to a 2021 Reuters report.