Global Pharmaceutical Quality Summit Amplifies Conversations on Making Quality Pharmaceuticals in India, Sustainably, for the World

Day 2 of IPA’s Pharmaceutical Quality Summit brought together global leaders and regulators across industries, emphasizing the importance of a “quality mindset” as a “culture” to be future-ready

New Delhi, February 27, 2022: The two-day Global Pharmaceutical Quality Summit 2022 organised by the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) successfully concluded last night. The event saw industry captains  and regulators in the ecosystem deliberate on achieving excellence and quality in operations, vaccine development and sustainability. We also witnessed leaders across industries sharing their views on innovation, technology and the potential learnings for the pharmaceutical industry.

The highlight of the day was the panel discussion on the ‘Sustainable end-to-end Operations and Quality Excellence – Path Forward’ that brought together the CEOs of leading Indian Pharmaceutical companies such as Cipla, Dr Reddy’s, Lupin, Sun Pharma, Torrent and Zydus. This session was moderated by Gautam Kumra, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company.

Echoing his views on newer modalities such as biosimilars, Mr Umang Vohra, CEO, Cipla said, “We have developed our technologies internally for generics and now we have to collaborate with the ones who have already done it and then leverage those. The talent required for some technologies is not present in India so collaboration with global partners will help address this issue.”

Speaking about challenges in the digitization journey, Mr G V Prasad, Co-Chairman, Dr Reddy’s said, “While digitalisation is inevitable, there is still a challenge to digitise since underlying processes need to be mastered and understood to enhance efficacy of the digitisation process. Industry leaders will have to be more agile, make data-driven leadership decisions with science and common sense coming together.”

Elaborating on crystalizing his vision on quality, Mr Nilesh Gupta, Managing Director, Lupin said, “Quality and compliance was a very company-specific issue, and it has changed due to forums such as this, which have allowed us to work towards a collective goal. Information sharing has been an enormous support system. We are known to be Pharmacy of the World and we are fortunate to have achieved this position. In the next 5 years it will be great to be known as best in class with the help of forums such as this which promote open dialogue.”

Addressing the issue of severe supply chain shock during COVID-19, Mr Dilip Shanghvi, Managing Director, Sun Pharmaceutical spoke about building resilience. “Creating options is important to have a backup. Government PLI schemes are helping to create a self-contained supply chain and helped in efficient supply during the pandemic. Yet, there is a long way to go, and we shall gradually bridge the gap,” he said.

Talking about the biggest trends in operations and quality in the industry, Mr Pankaj Patel, Chairman, Zydus Lifesciences said, “COVID-19 has brought the focus on technology, automation and ushered our digital entry into manufacturing and supply chain. Even on the API front, newer technologies for manufacturing have emerged and entry into the Biosimilar market can be envisaged.”

The panel further discussed Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance.

Earlier, in a special address, Dr Rogério Gaspar, Director, Regulation and Prequalification Department, WHO spoke on the “Future of Pharmaceutical Operations & Quality”. Panel discussion on “Vaccine Development: Design to Delivery in Vaccine Manufacturing” was addressed by Dr Nivedita Gupta, Scientist F and Head, Virology Unit, ICMR and saw participation from Dr Kapil Maithal, President, Vaccines and Diagnostics, Zydus and Dr Sanjay Singh, CEO, Gennova Biopharmaceuticals. This was moderated by Mr Shirish Belapure, Senior Technical Advisor, IPA. Another panel discussion was on “Quality excellence across industries and potential learnings for Pharmaceuticals” which was addressed by Mr Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman, Quality Council of India and saw the participation of Dr Ranjana Pathak, President, Global Quality, Medical Affairs and Pharmacovigilance, Cipla, Mr Nandkumar Kulkarni, Senior Director, Integrated Supply Chain, Mondelez and Mr Vijay Kalra, Head, Mahindra Institute of Quality and Chairman, Central Safety Council for Mahindra Group. Mr Naveen Unni, Partner, McKinsey & Company delivered a session on “Sustainability in Operations”.

The final session of the event was on “DnA Roadshow of latest technological advancements in Pharmaceutical Quality & Operations” which saw the participation of Dr Rajesh Kuppuswamy, Health Sciences Industry Advisor, SAP, Ms Lalitha Surabhi, Associate VP, Strategy & Business Development, Caliber and Mr Samuel Samson, Head, Pharmaceuticals and life sciences vertical, Siemens. This was moderated by Dr Navneet Tewatia, Associate Secretary General, IPA. The event concluded with Closing Remarks by Mr Nilesh Gupta and Vote of Thanks by Mr Shirish Belapure.

Corporate Comm India (CCI Newswire)