Resolutions for 2014

‘Simple resolutions for the new year’

Ranjit Shahani

2013 has been a particularly challenging year for industry, pharma industry included. From a slack economy to runaway prices we have seen it all. Low gross domestic product (GDP) growth and deferred capital investments meant that India had a tougher job than anticipated. The uncertainties that abounded only served to add fuel to a fire that was all but raging.

The authorities kept the price control under suspense and until the drugs price control order (DPCO) was finally announced it kept hanging like a Damocles sword. Once announced there appeared to be complete lack of clarity for a while with several members of the industry going to court over the impracticality of the time limit to withdraw drugs, re-label them and have them back in the market with the new prices. Revenues were severely impacted and the trade did little to ease the situation and stood their ground over their reduced margins even though the new margins were dictated by government. Speculation was rife in the media about more compulsory licenses to come and this only served to stoke the embers.

Implementation of intellectual property continued to be plagued by uncertainty. The Glivec patent was lost in the Supreme Court. The Merck Glenmark patent row only served to exacerbate the global view that India’s patent environment was volatile and uncertain. Extreme views on FDI in pharma made one wonder if India was actually going back in time.

We are stepping into 2014 and with the New Year comes new hope. National elections of course means that the next six months will see little meaningful business being transacted as all political parties get into election mode. And yet there is hope. Hope that once we have a new government in place we will see positive traction in the economy. That we will move forward to move further up the value chain across industries and that the economy will see growth that is nearer double digits.

The innovative pharma industry hopes for more predictability in the manner in which intellectual property rights are implemented and for more transparency and growth. New years are a time for making resolutions and while companies are constantly going through periods of self-renewal this becomes a time to introspect. At Novartis in India we would like to see more partnerships with multiple stakeholders as we work towards a common goal of healthcare for all. We would certainly like to see a higher work ethic from all segments of society. We would like to see better engagement with NGOs and less rhetoric.

Like most others I too look at making personal resolutions for the new year. What will be my resolutions for 2014? Well, I would certainly like to be able to exercise greater control over the choices of what I eat so that I eat right and eat healthy. Health is truly our greatest wealth and as societies get more developed we tend to opt for richer and better foods that are not necessarily good for us. More than anything else, I would like to make time to do the things I enjoy. To find time to paint,visit art galleries and enjoy looking at works of others. I would also like to find more time to spend on listening to music. I am an ardent lover of music and spending time on this gets increasingly harder.

I believe, and rightly so, that in the stress of our everyday lives and as we chase chimeral goals we lose track of the simpler things in life. Things that bring us true joy. My advice to the younger generations is this – make sure you always find time for meaningful and simpler things in life; the things that you will truly cherish and bring joy to others.

– Ranjit Shahani, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Novartis India

‘New year resolutions are easy to make but extremely difficult to maintain’

Glenn Saldanha

I feel the secret of living a positive, fulfilling and a happy life is to maintain a proper balance between spending time at work, with family or friends and also focusing on your health and fitness. So my New Year Resolution is to maintain a healthy work life balance as well as turning the spotlight on my fitness. Being the Chief Executive Officer of a global pharma company with operations spread across diverse geographies can be tough on your work-life balance. But you need to strike a way out.

I have always realised that it is important to spend time with your family and friends, but have not been able to do proper justice because of my hectic and demanding work schedule. My two daughters – Aisha and Rayna are my recharge tablets and this year I resolve to spend more quality time with them; along with my wife and other family members.

Along with your family, dedicating some time for friends can be equally pleasurable and unwinding. So, allocating more time for my good old friends is also on my New Year resolution list.

Another area of focus for me in 2014 will be my fitness. I do play badminton around three times a week which serves as a decent workout but I need to create a consistent workout routine. So, on the agenda are plans like daily brisk walking and keeping a tab on my diet i.e. eating healthy and saying no to junk food.

However, I do realise that New Year resolutions are easy to make but extremely difficult to maintain for any professional, where work dictates your priority. But I sincerely hope that I am able to keep my resolution of striking a health balance between my work on one hand and family, friends and my health on the other.

– Glenn Saldanha, Chairman & Managing Director, Glenmark Pharma

‘This years’ resolution will be bringing the industry together and making it stronger’

BR Sikri

The year 2013 was one of the most challenging years for the pharma industry. We have seen all the hurdles in this year: implementation of new drug pricing policy (DPCO-2013), requirement of efficacy data by the DCGI for all FDCs, introduction of bar code system, COPP issue, introduction of GLP, GDP. Industry suffered heavily due to the new pricing policy and sudden change in Government policy on FDCs. On DPCO front, there was a huge divide between manufacturers, stockists/ distributors and retailers, because of which 2013 was one of the most unproductive years, which dragged this so called ‘recession proof industry’ into the worst recession I have observed in my entire career. The pharma industry was the only industry which was growing at healthy pace of 15 to 17 per cent, but this year it witnessed single digit growth. Owing to reduction in retailers margin from 20 per cent to 16 per cent in the wake of new drug pricing policy, no retailer was ready to purchase material from the manufacturers thereby resulting in vacuum of medicines in the market and suffering by patients. Consequently, the pharma manufacturing industry, which works in India with an objective to serve common man, buckled under pressure and decided to pay 20 per cent commission to retailers by cutting their own margins.

However, now the pharma industry is trying to put this difficult phase in the past and is looking forward for the positives which are in store for the industry in the coming years.

We can proudly say that Indian generics have very well established itself in the global market due to consistent supply of good quality medicines at affordable prices. Global pharma industry cannot ignore Indian pharma industry, as we have the talent, infrastructure and willingness to grow. Indian pharma industry is expected to touch Rs 1,25,000 crores in years to come. It implies that there is huge opportunity for all of us. There is strong potential for exports of generic pharma from India given the country’s comparative advantage in manufacturing of generics. India’s share in the global generic market is roughly five to six per cent and likely to reach 25 to 30 per cent over a period of time. Pharma exports from India continue to grow at a healthy rate of 18 per cent unaffected by the challenges that are being faced by other industries at a government level or at a macroeconomic level. In fact the recent depreciation of the Indian rupee against US dollar has added fuel to the fire and affected the growth potential of this business adversely. So all of us should take a resolution for 2014 that we will all work together and will make India a most sought-after destination for any pharmaceutical product.

On the personal front, in 2014, I would like to concentrate more on bringing the industry together and make it stronger to face the challenges and its growth in double digit. Our loyalty towards the great country has to remain unflinching. Although lot of tsunamis may come in between, we have to go a long way to grow to bring strength to the economy of our country because youth, which counts for more than 60 per cent population of this country, looks forward towards seniors like us and we owe this responsibility to the country.

Also, it is observed that stakeholders are going to court for each and every issue and getting their grievances redressed but my resolution for 2014 will be to humbly request the Government to sit with stakeholders, give them a patience hearing and resolve the issue internally with the industry so that valuable time of court, government machinery and industry is not wasted and we do more of the constructive and positive work for the overall growth of the nation. Jai Hind!

– BR Sikri, Director, ABS Mercantiles

‘Plan goals On monthly basis to achieve yearly goals’

Parth Patel

New years are always exciting and more amazing are the list of resolutions or plans you want to achieve.

But 90 per cent of us don’t even remember it when half year is through. But I define new year resolution as new year plan which contains my goals for the year; they are both personal and professional. I plan my goals on monthly basis which helps me to achieve my yearly goal. This helps me too be more focused and regularly work for it.

Secondly, you should follow an organised manner both at home as well as at work. For e.g., whether you want your home organised enough that you can invite someone over on a whim, or your office organised enough that you can find the stapler when you need it, these tips and resources should get you started on the way to a more organised life.

Read something which is not of your profession or interest. This will help you to know more about other things in life which can be beneficial some way. This is called sponging. I learnt this technique from a serial entrepreneur named Jeff Hoffman. He used to daily read something of different fields and interests and note the points which interests him. So after a month he decided to combine them and he founded a company named priceline.com. A company founded out of sponging is now valued as a $60 billion-company with revenues of around $25 billion and is present in over 180 countries. So your new year resolution should be inspirational, big and should motivate you to achieve them.

I would like to conclude with a quote from Donald Trump: THINK BIG AS YOU ARE GOING TO THINK ANYWAY

– Parth Patel, Director- Online Marketing & Sales, West-Coast Pharmaceutical Works

‘Will develop newer approaches to resolve issues’

Bhavesh Patel

The coming year – 2014 will bring newer dimensions not only for the pharmaceuticals and healthcare industry, but the nation. Newer political equations, explosive growth across emerging sectors, converging technologies and globally changing dynamics promise an interesting tomorrow, everyday.

In 2014, the industry will continue to be challenged by key patent expiration and continued pricing pressures, amid changing healthcare access and funding issues. At the same time, emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil, will continue driving sales of pharma.

Our goals in 2014 are to expand our large volume parenteral (LVP) manufacturing capacities and penetrate further into the national markets. Adding value to all our products and offerings through strong research and development is a key component of our vision for 2014. Marck Biosciences will also play a stronger role globally this year, having been awarded TGA Australia and MCC South Africa certifications. We will be focussing on internal corporate restructuring to make the organisational structure more decentralised; thereby more responsive. Additional recruitment in the sales team will help us penetrate the national market further. We keenly anticipate a great response from hospital administrators, doctors and para-medicals, which in turn will help us strengthen delivery mechanisms in our products. At Marck, the founding principle is Innovision – a dynamic principle of order, manifesting itself in change, not in rigidity. Due to Innovision, we are an organisation that undergoes change without becoming chaotic, an organisation that can re-engineer itself to remain relevant in a continuously dynamic environment.

We at Marck thrive on change and thus having imbibed a culture conducive for knowledge based activity and have geared our production facilities to become a versatile manufacturer. Our new Goa plant is fully operational and will add to our top-line while servicing the domestic and global markets both.

On the personal front, I have three priorities to focus on in 2014, for an enhanced work – life balance:

1. Fitness
2. Music
3. Reading on military history

For almost two years now, I have been adhering to a fitness regime under an expert trainer. I feel happy and regret not starting this earlier. I have been also learning music since the last five years but have not been able to put sincere efforts in the last year. I also read extensively on military history and would continue to do so. Interestingly, earlier, the thought of work and life balance never crossed my mind. There was no single hobby which I would pursue systematically and methodically. Maybe my focus was different in those days. Today, I feel amazingly energised through the day; by following regular exercise regime and focussed music lessons and have benefited enormously. In-depth reading of military history stimulates lateral thinking and helps me break monotony. I can develop newer approaches to resolving crucial issues.

– Bhavesh Patel, Managing Director, Marck Biosciences

‘It was a year which helped us grow our horizon’

Akhilesh Thakur

Last year has been very eventful and we have come to an end of the year. Professionally for Protiviti and for me, it was a year which helped us grow our horizon across different segments and strengthen our relationship with the clients. Our revenues, resources and loyal clients have all grown and our reputation in the market has expanded considerably. We started with seven people in October 2006, have grown considerably over last seven years and today our strength is more than 300 people. We are a stronger firm today thanks to the efforts of our team to embrace and successfully execute our strategy.

We are facing lot of uncertainties in business environment in India due to global as well as domestic factors and are hopeful that the New Year will be different (better). We would like to do the following in next year:

Strengthen client relationship: We would like to strengthen our relationships with clients and would like them to look at us as someone they can count for support in managing business challenges. This will also help us become trusted advisors which is a core to our growth. We have acquired lot of large clients across different industries in last year and would like to strengthen our relationship with them.

Knowledge sharing: We would be more active in professional associations as this helps us demonstrate our capabilities and develop our skills. These associations have people who are very experienced and interaction with them helps you understand different view points for some of the issues and challenges. At Protiviti, we believe it sharing knowledge and have a website (knowledgeleader.com), through which we share various documents such as questionnaires, work programmes, articles etc with people at large.

Strong people: We have lot of talented people working with our organisation which has helped us be successful in the market. We will be looking for them to take up larger roles and fulfil their professional aspirations. We believe in faster growth for the deserving candidates and will continue to provide them opportunities to grow faster. We have developed training programmes for our employees to equip them with the requirements in consulting and internal audit and will be enhancing the training so that they can get more benefit from the structured programmes. We will also encourage them through incentives and other rewards to actively participate in developing new training programmes.

We will be strengthening our mentoring programme as it is very important from an employee retention point of view.

The above three resolutions sum up what we are looking at doing professionally in the next year as loyal clients, employees and knowledge are three main pillars for our success will help us in achieve the following objectives:

Grow business: Be known for quality of service we provide leader in internal audit and business consulting

Be preferred place to work

On personal front, I would like to do the following:

Spend more time with family: We have been travelling continuously due to professional and client commitments and in the entire process, the family suffers a lot. I would like to spend more time with my kids and my wife. I would like to go on a couple of vacations where I am not bothered by e-mails, messages and phone calls.

Fitness: I have been trying to get some time out for exercise in last few years, but have not been successful. I would like to see myself devote time for fitness and may be participate in one of the marathons next year.

Social events: I am the kind of person who is not very active in social events and I would like to change that. I will put in more efforts to ensure that I am actively involved with social events/ programmes.

– Akhilesh Thakur, Director, Protiviti Consulting

‘A Bouquet of Fitness Regimes for the New Year’

Dr Gopakumar G Nair

In the New Year, I would like to remember a few golden thoughts, a few words of wisdom and put them into action.

Doing justice to our forefathers when there is potential for convergence emerging into the tomorrow of 2014 where, “AAP, HUM and WOH” are coming together in the capital of India, in competition to deliver, I believe is the right time to make your dreams into realities. Our country has all the potential to lead and succeed. As Swami Vivekananda said, “Awake, arise, wait not till the goal is reached”, we need to make our citizens follow the call of the hour. In 2014, I would request one and all to work together in Parliament to make the “fundamental duties” enshrined in our Constitution namely Art.51(A) and more particularly the Art.51(A)(h) which reads as follows: It shall be the duty of every citizen of India: to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform.

With the world’s highest percentage of youth population and the best opportunities for higher education within the country with largest network of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Universities and Centres of Excellence in science and technology India could become a powerhouse of science, knowledge and innovation.

“A healthy mind in a healthy body”. Fitness is the secret of health, financial fitness for corporates, knowledge fitness for IP professionals, cGMP fitness for pharmaceutical manufacturers, cGLP fitness for CRO’s and mental, emotional, psychological and financial fitness for the individuals. 2013 has been a relatively tumultuous year, disturbing for many mentally, emotionally and financially. The best New Year resolution is to develop a ‘healthy mind through a healthy body’.

Health of Indian API industry needs attention. Indian professionals are working in China to upgrade their US-EU compliant standards, while Indian law – makers and NGO’s are working overtime to kill whatever is left over of the glorious API years of 1980’s and 90’s in India. Rebuilding and regaining the health of the API industry must be one resolution for 2014.

The health of the Indian CRO’s has taken a dip, at least in part due to their own unacceptable actions and activities. For the sake of the health of Indian biopharma industry as a whole, vigilance and proactive initiatives are essential to convince the Apex Court and clear the reputation for regaining a foothold on the CRO front, which is important for the future of biosimilars in 2011 and thereafter.

The legal health of the Indian generic industry could be better. The provisions of granting exemption to generic pharma Industry such as Sec.107 A(a), to obtain regulatory approvals, manufacture and offer for generic launches post patent expiries are under constant attack, through anti-competitive practises resulting from abuse of dominant position by some MNC’s. This needs to be tackled in 2014. The health of the generic pharma industry in India needs nurturing and protection from ACTA, IMPACT, SSFFC, TPPA etc.

There is tremendous potential for improving health of the herbal and nutraceutical industry in India, especially since the global market needs are visibly attractive. However, the badly implemented Biodiversity Act, the TKDL based “all is taboo” approach and the apathy of the Executive is causing serious road blocks even for sustainable benefit shared practical model for development and growth of herbal based pharma , bio and nutra. A ‘live and let live’ model should evolve for the “essential-medicines providers”, and their beneficiaries without excessive distinctions such as patentees vs. generics, MNCs vs. Indian companies, brands vs. INNs, public vs. private, NGOs vs. industry, doctors Vs. patients and above all the Government Department should work for a common national goal: “ Health for all from 2014”. This is my wish and my dream.

I would like to see our nation moving into that “heaven of freedom” of self reliance with high scientific temper.

To quote India’s Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore,

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father,
Let my country awake

– Dr Gopakumar G Nair, CEO, Gopakumar Nair Associates

‘The next two years are very crucial’

Bhavin M Mehta

Firstly, the last two years been very slack in terms that our company Kilitch Drugs India has been registering products in West African countries like Burkina Faso, Mali, Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin and others. As the gestation period for the same is around one and half years to two years, we now have received registration from all these countries. Hence 2014-2015 shall be the year where I shall be travelling almost 7-15 days a month to launch our company in various countries along with my team of lieutenants who are go getters.

Secondlly, I am a great lover of golf, have been playing it for a while but want to master the same. I have planned to devote my Saturdays and Sundays, early morning, for golf.

Thirdly, off late I have been spending less time with my family and hence decided to stay away from work on weekends. After all whom are we running for? If quality time cannot be spent with our family then we need to slow down and introspect for self realisation of our existence.

And lastly, I shall be spending two days every two months at Katarkhadak, near Pune where my guru has built a gurukul to be in silence and energise myself.

This is very much required for all of us, as we face so many people daily, who have either given up or are very negative in life which either drains our energy or diverts us to their path of negativity. We get disturbed several times a week if some work is not done or some people don’t respond to you.

In order to remove all the negativity and regain our positive attitude which is a must for the benefit of business, I will be spending time at Katarkhadak Gurukul. This is essential as the next two years are going to be very crucial for my company.

– Bhavin M Mehta, Director, Kilitch Drugs