The pharma industry is one of the critical pillars of India’s economy, and supply chain is what gives it enduring strength. For the longest time, however, the pharma supply chain was unorganised. This is changing now, with the entry of big players and retail giants. We are also seeing a shift away from the old ways when patients used to go to pharmacists to pick up the medicines they needed. Today the pharma, healthcare, and retail industries offer not just products, but personalised experiences and value-added services to patients. Products are delivered to people’s doorsteps in record time, that too with discounts and offers.

India is the world’s third largest producer of pharma products and has earned the sobriquet of “the pharmacy to the world”. Indian pharma companies have a substantial share in the prescription market in the US and the EU. India also has the largest number of FDA-approved plants outside the US.

To continue driving growth for the industry, we need modern, smart supply chains that are compliant with both domestic and international regulations; follow robust standard operating procedures; have multimodal capabilities across air, land, and water; provide end-to-end visibility and control; and use the latest technologies for competitive advantage. Let us examine some of the recent developments and emerging trends on the policy, consumer, and technology fronts that are shaping the evolution of India’s pharma supply chain.

Policy-aided modernisation and growth
The supply chain in post-Covid times is being shaped, in part, by government policies. In September 2022, the Central Government announced the National Logistics Policy with the objective of lowering the cost of logistics, increasing the competitiveness of Indian products in domestic and international markets, and improving the efficiency of industries. India’s pharma MSMEs will benefit from the reduction in logistics costs. The establishment of multi-modal logistics parks, as proposed in the policy, will improve last-mile connectivity, and strengthen the cold storage and warehousing infrastructure across the country. It will also allow for inventory buffers, thus lessening our dependence on other countries for raw materials.

In the pharma supply chain, products are usually sent to C&F agents, then to city-level distributors, and ultimately to retailers. Since much of this happens at a local level, it can cause compliance issues, especially when it concerns medicines that need to be transported and stored at specific temperatures. This is because, in India, temperatures can vary widely across states, and even within cities in the same state. The newly proposed storage and warehousing policies will guide the ongoing efforts of pharma and logistics companies in addressing such issues by increasing the accessibility of the cold chain infrastructure and enhancing the connectivity to the storage areas through multimodal connectivity.

Building robust cold chain and reverse logistics capabilities
Cold chain is one of the toughest aspects of logistics to get right, and the demand for it is on the rise. Pharma and healthcare companies often ship products like vaccines, blood products, and medicines, which need to be maintained at certain temperatures to preserve their potency and validity. This can be achieved through temperature-controlled warehousing and transportation, with IoT sensors to continuously monitor the temperature. Furthermore, cold chain systems must have inbuilt protocols for mitigating risk and loss, and strong capabilities for dealing with contingencies.

Reverse logistics capability is yet another crucial aspect of pharma supply chain. There could be times when certain products need to be withdrawn from the market. This entails picking up the product from every nook and corner of the country and bringing it to the company’s warehouses or to their country of origin. There’s a need for more investments in setting up dedicated centres that perform quality checks, re-labelling, and dispatch of the returned products to the warehouses. Technology will help in developing a robust control environment to prevent fraud and tampering in both forward and reverse logistics.

The role of Blockchain
Spurious drugs are a serious issue across the world, but a technology-enabled, transparent supply chain can help in addressing it. In Africa, improvements in pharma supply chain have reduced the prevalence of spurious and failed drugs from almost 45 per cent to less than 10 per cent in the past 10-15 years.

Supply chain visibility, speed and coordination are critical to the safe and timely delivery of pharma products, and Blockchain technology can be of great help in several areas. These include monitoring the cold chain; identifying contamination of high-value, temperature-sensitive products; ensuring the authenticity of products; improving time and cost efficiencies; addressing regulatory requirements for drug tracking, and more. Blockchain can help in accurately recording price, date, location, quality, certification, and other relevant information. This improves supply chain transparency and traceability and reduces administrative costs. Blockchain can help pharma companies build trust and optimise the value chain through secure and tamper-evident data-sharing; product provenance; and digital asset tracking. Blockchain technology can give a clear picture of every capsule, every drop of a product from the manufacturer to the consumer, and nobody can manipulate the data.

Predictive supply chain with Big Data, AI, and ML
Pharma businesses that invest in Big Data Analytics, or work with logistics partners who do so, gain a great competitive advantage, as they can make more informed decisions, optimise capacity utilisation, reduce risk, and improve customer experiences. Dynamic, real-time route optimisation through the correlation of multiple data streams (such as shipments, weather, and traffic) can enable more efficient scheduling of consignments, optimisation of load sequences, and accurately predict the time of arrival. Smarter forecasting of demand, capacity, and labour can significantly optimise planning and resource utilisation and reduce supply chain costs. Big Data can be used to mitigate risks by detecting, evaluating, and providing alerts on potential disruptions caused by unexpected events, man-made or natural. This can be further enhanced with the integration of data from IoT devices.

Big Data, together with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), can also help pharma companies predict prescription trends and align their operations accordingly, well in advance. Geography-based market trends, customer behaviours, and healthcare trends can be used to predict orders. For instance, Rajasthan might have higher prevalence of a different set of illnesses as compared to Karnataka. The demand for medicines will accordingly differ. By studying the demand data, AI will be able to predict the prescription trends, and enable pharma companies and retailers to be ready with adequate quantities of the required products at the distribution centres that are closest to the most likely customers. This can help pharma retailers to meet heavy demand and offer quick home deliveries.

With pharma industry accelerating its digital transformation journey, the supply chain services providers have also increased their focus on driving innovations backed by data to strengthen the pharma and medical logistics. For instance, DP World’s production management and business intelligence tools provide enhanced visibility and control across the supply chain, thereby supporting optimum decision making. Furthermore, company’s suite of digital technologies is helping our customers identify bottlenecks in their supply chains and smooth the flow of medical supplies across borders.

Looking ahead
The era of the metaverse is dawning, and although it’s still early days, we can expect the metaverse to find a wide range of use cases that enable pharma companies to improve their experiential offerings. The metaverse will also play a vital role in applications such as simulating terminal operations; carrying out container and vessel inspections; conducting immersive, online safety trainings; and creating Digital Twins where a virtual representation of real-world processes is created, which can help in addressing industrial and supply chain challenges and achieving substantial time and cost savings.

Metaverse can help a single operator monitor terminals from different parts of the world in real time through virtual reality. It can also enable pharma companies to virtually check out the facilities and capabilities of prospective logistics partners. From a user benefit standpoint, Metaverse can be used to demonstrate the correct way of administering a certain medicine.

In coming years, we could see specialisations emerging within the pharma supply chain. Clinical trials, for instance, require a specialised supply chain because the samples are highly sensitive and need careful management and handling.

Meanwhile, as the costs and complexities of healthcare and pharma logistics continue to rise, pharma companies need logistics partners who can mitigate any adverse impacts on their business and on patients. The ability to leverage relationships, network, experience and skills is crucial to ensure that access to quality healthcare remains equitable across the globe.

Partnering with logistics providers can yield significant benefits for pharma companies on both the business and the consumer health fronts. With the health of millions of humans at stake, there is no room for compromise or laxity.

The post Tech and policy evolution of India’s pharma supply chain appeared first on Express Pharma.

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has announced major recognitions in gender equality and sustainability. Dr Reddy’s has been included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) 2023 for a sixth consecutive year, featuring as the only Indian pharma company. The 2023 index includes 484 companies representing 11 sectors, 45 countries and a market capitalisation of $16 trillion. The index measures gender equality across internal company statistics, employee policies, external community support and engagement, and gender-conscious product offerings. The Bloomberg GEI reporting framework includes over 70 metrics, each allocated to one of the following five pillars – leadership and talent pipeline, equal pay and gender pay parity, inclusive culture, anti-sexual harassment policies, and external brand.

A company statement informed, “In 2022, Dr. Reddy’s adopted bold social goals as part of its Environment, Social, Governance (ESG) agenda to contribute to a fairer and more socially inclusive world through diversity, equity and inclusion measures – at least 35 per cent women in senior leadership by 2030; gender parity across the organisation by 2035; three per cent of the workforce to be persons with disabilities by 2030; and 100 per cent living wages for on-premise extended workforce by 2025. Through the course of the year, the company introduced several measures to increase the proportion of women in leadership, in key business units, and to create an environment to support the hiring of women in ‘non-traditional’ areas such as sales and operations. The concerted efforts towards gender equality helped the company achieve year-on-year improvement in its score.”

Dr Reddy’s has been included as a member of the Sustainability Yearbook 2023 for a third consecutive year based on the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) for 2022. The CSA covers assessment of 61 industries, 7,800 companies, 140,000 documents and 14 million data points. To earn inclusion in the Yearbook, companies must score within the top 15 per cent of their industry and must achieve an S&P Global Sustainability Score within 30 per cent of their industry’s top-performing company.

Relatedly, based on the CSA and further screening criteria, Dr Reddy’s has also been named among global sustainability leaders for the seventh year in a row in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) in the Emerging Markets category, highlighting our value-creation and risk-mitigation ESG potential. The DJSI Emerging Markets Index represents the top 10 per cent of the 800 largest companies in 20 emerging markets based on long-term economic, environmental and social criteria.

GV Prasad, Co-Chairman & Managing Director, Dr Reddy’s said, “We are pleased to earn continued recognition from prestigious global bodies such as S&P Global, DJSI and Bloomberg GEI. We have consciously attempted to set ourselves bold goals in order to contribute meaningfully to the shaping of a sustainable, fair and inclusive society. We started our sustainability journey two decades ago. Last year marked a major shift in our approach. Our ESG goals expanded from a heavy emphasis on environment to cover all aspects of ESG – environmental stewardship, helping patients, employees and community, and corporate governance. We moved from a good-to-do approach to placing ESG right at the core of our business strategy. This led to the adoption of distinctive patient-centric goals on access, affordability and innovation for patients. By making our goals clear and measurable, we have created strong accountability. With 20 years of leadership in sustainability in Indian industry, we see it as our responsibility to set the bar high and deliver on these ambitious targets.”

Dr Reddy’s released its first Sustainability Report in the year 2004. Subsequently, the company introduced a ‘sustainability by design’ approach in its operations in 2013. Over the years, Dr. Reddy’s’ efforts in various aspects of ESG such as waste minimisation, water management, carbon emissions, transparent governance, investment in people development and other areas saw industry-leading initiatives such as zero liquid discharge, zero waste to landfills and Self-Managed Teams. The company adopted its first set of ESG goals in 2010 followed by their materiality assessment in 2020. The same year, Dr. Reddy’s became the first pharma company in India and the third in Asia to join the Science-based Targets initiative (SBTi) to reduce its carbon footprint. In 2022, Dr Reddy’s announced its new ESG goals. Among recent recognitions, in December 2022, Dr. Reddy’s Foundation was recognised by the President of India for its work in empowering persons with disabilities.

The post Dr Reddy’s Laboratories announces major recognitions in gender equality and sustainability appeared first on Express Pharma.

United States Pharmacopeia (USP) India is setting up a new continuous manufacturing (flow chemistry) facility in Hyderabad – an advanced concept that would enable the manufacturers to gain efficiencies and flexibility in manufacturing processes. The proposed budget for this new lab is $200K.

The announcement was made during Minister KT Rama Rao’s visit to the US in the presence of Stan Burhans, Chief Finance Officer, USP-US and Head of USP India Operations, and Dr KV Surendra Nath, Sr VP, Regions, Strategy and Operations, USP-US. Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce Department and Shakthi M Nagappan, Director Lifesciences, Government of Telangana were also present during the meeting.

USP is an independent, scientific non-profit organisation that sets quality standards for medicines, dietary supplements, and food ingredients, and the state government. In the last two years, USP India has invested $5 million in the development of infrastructure and capital equipment for scientific laboratory and IT.

As per the announcement, the new advanced laboratory with a team of 35 experienced scientists in Hyderabad would support the development of guidelines for new processes/technologies to address some of the challenges in implementing the continuous manufacturing processes. A 12,500 sq foot facility in IKP Knowledge Park is equipped with advanced synthetic and analytical capabilities.

Minister KT Rama Rao said, “I’m delighted to announce USP India’s expansion and a new continuous manufacturing facility in Hyderabad – an advanced concept that would enable the manufacturers to develop their products through continuous manufacturing. The continued expansion and a new investment of this nature in Hyderabad reinforces the city’s leadership position in life sciences sector.”

“This continued investment in the facility in Hyderabad allows us to reinforce our conviction in life science, support pharma industry and promote public health. We anticipate that India and Hyderabad will further cement its position in the global life science arena in the post pandemic world”, said USP in a statement.

The post USP to set up new pharma continuous manufacturing facility in Hyderabad appeared first on Express Pharma.

Masco Group, a global provider of technological solutions for the pharma and biotech industries, has acquired a majority stake in Swedish company KeyPlants AB. The move will strengthen Masco’s leadership in engineering technologies for life sciences.

Based in Stockholm, KeyPlants is an industry partner for standardised as well as customised process-integrated modular prefabricated facility solutions.

A company release informed that this partnership will strengthen Masco Group by combining its leadership in clean utilities and process technologies with KeyPlants’ expertise and innovative energy in prefabricated, modular facility solutions. It will support stronger value propositions for global supply chain challenges such as flexibility, reliability and fast-track manufacturing timelines to a global customer base of biopharmaceutical manufacturers and CDMOs focused on biologics, pharma and advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs), such as cell & gene therapies.

The post Masco Group acquires Keyplants AB, a provider of modular life science facilities appeared first on Express Pharma.

The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad’s alumni-led Healthcare Special Interest Group and TiE Mumbai organised IIMPACT HEALTH 2021: Global Shifts, Disruptions & The Age of Unicorns – Scaling Healthcare Innovation in India conclave from 16th to 17th September, 2021. The conclave brought together thought leaders, VCs, successful Indian and global healthcare and healthtech entrepreneurs to decode what it takes to build a large and successful healthcare company in India, the institutions notified via a joint statement.

The statement informed that the welcome address was conferred by Amit Mookim, President, TiE Mumbai where he underlined some of the real-world challenges to be solved by healthcare entrepreneurs. He said, “The pandemic has stretched poor healthcare infrastructure, severely impacted mental health and has increased obesity risks. This has thus accelerated tech adoption, has fast-tracked innovation and re-prioritized public health spends.”

Further, in his inaugural address Professor Saral Mukherjee, Faculty, Production and Quantitative Methods Area, IIMA, and Dean (Alumni and Externa Relations) said, “Indian pharma is at the cusp of a once-in-a-lifetime disruption with drastic change in supply chain infrastructure, decline of small traders, increased differentiation, emergence of D2C brands, centrality of supply chain analytics and shifts in power balance.”

Adding to it, Sudarshan Jain, Secretary General, Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) and anchor, IIMA Healthcare, ASIG, said,  “India has gone through a lot of change in the last 18 months. Indian startups are at a cusp of great growth with the right mix of demographics and technology. Great ideas, endurance, talent and risk capital will create the right environment for success.”

Besides, Axel Baur, Senior Partner and Pharma and Healthcare Practice Leader, Asia, Mckinsey & Company, in his address, said that COVID has brought healthcare to the forefront in many ways. There is a 5-6x increase in telemedicine traffic in 2020 and IT and healthcare have seen the most PE/VC deals in ’20. Several innovations are in the pipeline, which will disrupt healthcare landscape by 2040 – These are namely innovative vaccines, cell therapy and regenerative medicine, tech-enabled care delivery, AI and cognitive devices, 3D printing, etc. He added that customer-centric digital health value pools are expected to grow at 22 per cent CAGR by 2025. Digital health is likely to grow from less than two per cent penetration currently to around 15 per cent and grow at 35 per cent CAGR. e-diagnostics, teleconsulting, e-pharmacy, B2B marketplace will comprise $31 billion online spend in 2031 while offline spend will rise to $177 billion at nine per cent CAGR.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Executive Chairperson, Biocon Biologics and Executive Chairperson, Biocon, in her keynote address said that companies that challenge the status-quo, stand out and make a mark, those that differentiate and follow a business model, which is not a me-too model and create value are the ones that succeed. She added that approvability of ideas is low in biotech, the gestation period being longer; while in IT, it is much faster. VCs need to invest in high science, bold innovative ideas and understand the risk and opportunity, and know how to measure value.

The post Pharma veterans discuss ideas for building successful companies at IIMPACT HEALTH 2021 appeared first on Express Pharma.

The Centre has sanctioned funds from the PMCares Fund for setting up a vaccine-testing laboratory in Hyderabad, Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said.

The increased focus on vaccine production against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated more vaccine-testing laboratories in the country, Reddy said in a press release. At present, there are two vaccine-testing laboratories in the country — the Central Drug Laboratory at Kasauli and the National Institute of Biologicals at Noida, he said.

Funds have been released from the PMCARES Fund on March 6 for establishing two more such laboratories — one at National Centre for Cell Science, Pune, and the other at the National Institute of Animal Biotechnology, Hyderabad, under the Department of Biotechnology, he said. The laboratory in Hyderabad is expected to commence operations in the next one month, he said.

The setting up of the new laboratory is a big step towards the comprehensive development of the pharma sector in Hyderabad as the city is home to many pharma majors, COVID-19 vaccine production companies and other R&D institutions, he said. It would also boost the production of COVID-19 vaccines, Reddy said.

(Edits by EP News Bureau)

The post Government allots funds from PMCares for new lab in Hyderabad to test vaccines appeared first on Express Pharma.

Cole-Parmer Instrument Company has now become Antylia Scientific. It is a provider of peristaltic and single-use bioprocessing solutions, and has a diverse portfolio of life sciences and diagnostic products for the pharma, biopharma, healthcare, and environmental markets.

“Antylia Scientific (An-til-e-a) will continue to build on the platform of unique products and expert customer support by expanding the company’s organic product research and development capabilities and acquiring complementary products and companies, ” informed a company statement.

“The evolution as a provider of mission-critical products to the customers in their quest to discover and manufacture new therapeutics, vaccines, and diagnostic tests have led to creating Antylia Scientific,” said Bernd Brust, Chairman & CEO, Antylia Scientific.

Antylia Scientific is creating two operating divisions, bioprocessing and life sciences. The bioprocessing portfolio includes MasterflexI/P, L/S, B/T, Ismatec and Reglo range of peristaltic pumps, the MasterflexLive connected products, pump and transfer tubing, flow meters and single-use components and assemblies. Masterflex addresses the entire fluid path from research to production with a solution set developed for the specific needs of the bioprocessing, pharma and food and beverage customers.

The life sciences portfolio includes brands such as environmental sampler and tester, Environmental Express; real-time monitoring and cold storage solution at Traceable; standards and external diagnostic control products, SPEX and ZeptoMetrix; and lab essentials and consumables brand Cole-Parmer.

Jon Salkin, President, Antylia Scientific said, “Antylia Scientific will serve as a catalyst for further organic investment and acquisitions in the burgeoning life sciences and environmental markets.”

The post Cole-Parmer is now Antylia Scientific appeared first on Express Pharma.

Pharma/nutra manufacturing solutions provider, ACG, inaugurated its first ACG Laboratories site – a lab for process development in Shirwal.

The new facility is set to provide ACG’s customers and partners with a research, development, testing, and training environment dedicated to the collaborative exploration of all aspects of oral solid dosage manufacturing.

A statement from the company informed, “As an extension of ACG’s broader customer service offering (which includes process equipment recommendations and solutions, formulation and scale-up support, new product development and validation, and technical training), the new lab now allows ACG clients to explore and solve their manufacturing needs and challenges in a dedicated and state-of-the-art space. The facility also answers a growing customer need for training and assistance with clinical trials and development projects.”

The lab houses a dedicated R&D space for small-scale development, and a pilot area for scale-up and process optimisation studies. It is equipped to accommodate multiple projects at a time.

“The Shirwal Process Development Lab is led by a fifteen heads-strong team of industry experts, covering every manufacturing niche and application. Among them are specialists in areas including fluid bed and high shear mixer granulation, bottom spray pellet coating and drying, tablet compression and coating as well as capsule filling. To date, this team has been responsible for the development of over 3,500 formulations,” apprised the statement.

On the launch of ACG Laboratories, Dr Marcus Michel (CEO of ACG Engineering) said, “We believe in constantly trying to make the life of our customers and end-users easier and better. The lab’s multi-purpose functionality allows us to support our customers in a way of an aligned partnership throughout the product development process. It provides a ‘go-to’ knowledge hub for continuous support of the customer in various stages of product manufacturing across different OSD applications. It is also a benchmark for our industry. Recent situation has shown us how critical close collaboration and agility have become to reaching the end-user’s requirements. If ACG can be part of that evolution with our clients, then we’ll truly be living up to our ‘Make it better’ mission.”

The post ACG launches ACG Laboratories, a process development lab in Shirwal appeared first on Express Pharma.

The Punjab government will set up three pharma parks in the state soon, proposals for two of them have already been submitted to the Centre, said the state’s Industries Minister Sunder Sham Arora.

A bulk drug pharma park in an area of 1,300 acres, involving project cost of about Rs 1,800 crore, has been proposed at Bathinda under a scheme of the Government of India.

Besides, a medical devices park in an area of 210 acres involving a project cost of about Rs 180 crore has been proposed at Rajpura, said the minister in a statement here.

A third project, a greenfield project with the aim to give an impetus to the emerging need of pharma sector in the region, will be set up in an area of 130.32 acres in village Wazirabad, Fatehgarh Sahib, he said.

The project will cater to the growing demand for a wide variety of active pharma ingredients and formulations cropped up during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gram panchayat land of 130.32 acres has been procured and physical possession has also been taken over, Arora added.

(Edits by EP News Bureau)

The post Punjab to set up three pharma parks appeared first on Express Pharma.

Active packaging firm, CILICANT, has announced the launch of its third manufacturing facility in Pune.

The company informs that its new cGMP compliant facility has upped its production capability by three times and backs end-to-end production and distribution operations to support increasing demand from pharma and medical devices segments, during and post the pandemic.

In a statement, the company said that its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility that deploys the latest technology for production; machines that not only deliver the best quality but also have greater production capability.

The statement adds, “Cilicant is reputed for its unwavering focus on safety and quality. All products are manufactured in a classified cleanroom. And every employee adheres to meticulous safety standards established in accordance with industry and regulatory best practices. By holding DMF with USFDA and Health Canada and ISO 15378:2017, quality assurance is a big part of Cilicant’s operations.”

At its in-house Quality control lab, both raw materials and finished products are tested as per the current US pharmacopoeia testing standards and engages high-tech instruments for all its testing.

Manish Jain, Founder, CILICANT, commented, “Continuous improvement has been the crux of CILICANT’s growth, with our new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, we intend to serve our customers better than before’. We thank our customers who have not only supported but encouraged us to outdo ourselves every time, it is due to them we have achieved this endeavour.”

Sumeet Sharma, Sales Director, CILICANT added, “The opening of the new manufacturing facility is an important step towards realising our goals to achieve current market demand of desiccants. The third manufacturing facility will be the first of many important changes in line with high-quality standards and will suffice the high demand of the end-user. This facility is expected to generate sales of desiccants and capture the major share of the desiccant market for the year 21-22, primarily handle all pharma clients based in India to suffice the requirement of the regulated market. Our sales team is absolutely on their toes and very energetic to serve the industry and work closely with clients with the addition of the new facility’.

Fahmim Hussain, Marketing Director, CILICANT said, “Since its inception, Cilicant has envisioned itself not only as an active packaging manufacturing company but as a brand, an Indian brand that is capable of being global. The establishment of the third manufacturing facility is just another feather in the cap and we hope to have many in the coming years to fulfil the dream to be a global brand”.

For more information, visit cilicant.com

The post CILICANT launches third manufacturing facility in Pune appeared first on Express Pharma.