Top-notch industry leaders engage in a turnkey meeting with the aim of transforming India into a Pharma Super Power

•The CEO Round Table, a maiden venture by UBM India, took place under the India Pharma Week umbrella

•The 10th anniversary of CPhI and P-MEC, one of the world’s leading pharma expos, is celebrated with a series of successful, trend-setting activities.

Mumbai, November 24, 2016: The launch edition of the India Pharma Week, a UBM India initiative to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its flagship pharma event, CPhI and P-MEC, witnessed one of its most significant events, the CEO Round Table, in association with West Pharma.

The exclusive, closed door Round Table was a congregation of India’s most influential CEOs, Presidents & Founders from leading pharmaceutical companies, and Policy Makers & Senior Representatives from Pharmaceutical Associations who engaged with one another on the vital issue of what it would take to Drive Radical Growth to make India a Pharma Super Power.

The strategic gathering among the acknowledged leaders of the industry also helped deep dive into thought-provoking discussions on achievements and supplementary challenges around policy making, industry growth and sustainability in an endeavour to achieve the target of USD 300 billion in value for the Indian pharma industry by 2030.

Significantly, a detailed White Paper Report was prepared on the recommendations provided by thought leaders and will be presented to policy makers and other key stakeholders.

The best-in-class industry professionals who were a part of the exclusive meeting included Sanjiv Navangul, Managing Director, Janssen India, Pharmaceutical company of Johnson and Johnson; Sudarshan Jain, MD, Abbott Healthcare; Dr Dinesh Dua, Vice Chairman, Pharmexcil and MD, Nectar Lifesciences; DG Shah, Secretary General, IPA; Kanchana TK, President, OPPI; Prashant Nagre, CEO, Fermenta Biotech, Jayanth Tagore, MD, Synthokem Labs; SM Mudda, Director, Microlabs; & President, IDMA; Dr. Koduru V Surendranath, Senior Vice President, Global Sites, USP; Troy Player, Vice President and Managing Director, Asia Pacific, West Pharmaceutical; Dr AKS Bhujanga Rao – Board Member – Natco Pharma; Ajit Dangi, President and Chief Executive Officer, Danssen Consulting and Sandeep Sood, Managing Director, Fette Compacting, Asia Pacific.

A representative body of the group comprising D G Shah, Secretary General, IPA; Dinesh Dua, Vice Chairman; Pharmexcil and MD, Nectar Lifesciences; Kewal Handa, promoter-director, Salus Lifecare, SM Mudda, Director, Microlabs; Ranga Iyer ex MD, Wyeth and Yogesh Mudras, MD, UBM India later briefed the media about the crux of the deliberations. These included, but were not limited to:

•Strategising to begin research on précision medicine in India to capture growing investment

•Capturing the growing biotechnology segment to cash in on the increasing bio-similar demand and patent cliff

•Increasing self-reliance for API sourcing by reducing dependency on China

•Discussing strategies to ensure pricing control, fostering innovation and promoting patient benefit

•Addressing quality compliance challenges and inculcating quality culture organizations

•Increasing collaborations with academia in the form of Indian research institutes and universities

Disrupting the pharma space with innovations, rather than vanilla growth, and pumping in greater investments in the pharma industry in the national spends.

Bringing in rural India within the pharma ambit, by use of e-commerce and strengthening its infrastructure by leveraging technology

Making health insurance compulsory in order to increase patient volume.

Speaking on the occasion of the CEO Round Table, Mr. Yogesh Mudras, Managing Director, UBM India said, “As we congregated for this elite knowledge sharing session, we confronted the Indian pharma industry at a very crucial juncture in its growth trajectory. While India is fast growing into a global pharmacy hub and ranks amongst the top three pharmaceutical markets in terms of volume of produced drugs, it ranks only 14th with a size of $13 billion ( in 2015) from the angle of commercial value. The reasons and solutions for this gap were discussed by the noted master strategists who drive business in the pharma sector. The CEO Round Table is an extremely proactive initiative with the White Paper Report that will be presented to relevant policy makers and continuously monitored.”

He added, “It’s measures such as these that will produce further transformations in the pharma sector. The CEO Round Table was just one of the many ways we celebrated the achievements of the Indian pharma industry that has aided our flagship event, CPhI and P-MEC proliferate and become South Asia’s leading pharma networking event.”

To mark a decade’s existence of CPhI and P-MEC, UBM India previously launched the India Pharma Week (IPW), an attractive platter of ten-trend setting events that got off to a flying start on November 17, prior to the CPhI& P-MEC expo. Focusing on the pillars of business, knowledge, leadership, innovation, recognition and networking in the pharma domain, the IPW included a Pre-Connect Congress; Women in Pharma – Power Breakfast; the India Pharma Awards; Networking Evening; Pharma Leaders’ Golf; and concluded with the closed door CEO Round Table. The IPW transformed the CPhI& P-MEC exhibition from a wall-bound show to one with considerable intellectual value addition.

Corporate Comm India(CCI Newswire)