The evolution of drug-making from dye manufacturing and chemical industries.

The various types of drugs currently available.

He talked about the trends in the market, mainly about the growing importance of Generic Drugs and Declining Product Pipelines. At the same time, he highlighted the various growth factors like Life-style Diseases, New Drug Delivery Systems and Technological Convergence.

Mr. Dhamankar laid special emphasis on the Indian advantage, and discussed in detail, the rise of the Indian pharmaceutical MNCs, and the ongoing paradigm change to a R&D-driven industry. He also talked about the current level of development of the Indian pharmaceutical industry. He explained concepts like Product Patents, Process Patents, Generic Drugs and Reverse Engineering. He discussed the relevance of the advent of the WTO and the acceptance of Product Patents in India. To impress upon us the achievements of Indian companies at the global stage, he gave us examples of these companies partnering with MNCs to release new drugs like DRF 4158 (Dr. Reddy's with Novartis) for diabetes and GRC 3886 (Glenmark with Forest) for Asthma.

Coming to Glenmark, he talked about its strategy for growth. He delved on the following three points: -

A.. R&D: Invested 6-8% of sales YOY
(1) Focused on key segments
      (a) Respiratory: Oglemilast
      (b) Diabetes: GRC 8200
      (c) Obesity: GRC 10389
      (d) 3 other products in pre-clinical stages

B.. Generic Formulations
(1) Built & Acquired brands in BRIC/ROW
      (a) Acquisitions in Brazil, South Africa & Argentina
(2) US: Use the organic / inorganic route to get niche and vanilla products

C.. APIs
(1) Partner with generic companies to capture first or second source
(2) Support NCEs by developing low cost processes

Mr. Dhamankar elaborated on the challenges and issues faced by the industry on the whole. He discussed evergreening by innovator companies, recovering R&D costs vis-a-vis affordability to patients, tackling new diseases like Bird Flu, and highly resistant strains of TB and Margin Pressure. He also stressed on the growing importance of cultural differences, risks related to financial security, tradable currencies, and counterfeit drugs and political scenarios, time differences, language and food in the global arena.

The session was concluded with interactive Q&A, where Mr. Dhamankar addressed the issues lingering in the minds of the upcoming business managers.

Concluded.

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Contributed by -
Harsha Venkatesh,
Media Coordinator,
Management Class of 2007,
NITIE, Mumbai.