There is a growing need for sustainable drug discovery and development methods across the global pharma industry and experts feel that a myriad of opportunities exist for the generic pharma industries to reduce the E-factor and develop cost-effective and green synthetic routes of medicines. Arjun Dasoondi, AVP Amway I&S addressed this issue and spoke on ‘Green formulation development: Strategies and challenges’ at FDD Conclave 2021.
He spoke on the global growth potential in this segment and informed that in all life stages, it is about $10 billion in market size with a three-year projected CAGR of 11 per cent. He also informed that the consumer penetration opportunity for green formulations is 50 per cent. He pointed out that green formulations are becoming increasingly popular on the back of growing consumer awareness. Clean labels, no artificial colours, no preservatives etc are some of the buzzwords today which are driving the growth of green formulations in pharma and nutrition.
However, challenges such as availability of raw materials, logistics, high cost of ingredients etc, complex regulations, use of contemporary and advanced formulation technologies like sustained release, delayed release nanotechnologies etc in natural or green formulation development are challenges that hinder progress in this field, globally. Explaining the Indian context, he said that green formulations segment is still at a nascent stage and face major market challenges such as low category penetration, low average product consumption and low compliance. These issues need to be dealt with effectively to accelerate development.
Emphasising how green formulation development is a way of life for Amway, he also assured that they focus on human health, ecosystem health and environment system health in equal measures, while developing a product.