Lonza India plans to double its turnover by 2024

Lonza is a global integrated solutions provider for pharma, consumer healthcare and nutrition segments. Deepak Sood, MD, Lonza India talks about the company’s plans for the Indian market, its strategic focus areas, and more in an exclusive interview with Express Pharma

How large and important is Lonza’s focus on the Indian market? What are your revenue and growth targets for India’s pharma business?
Lonza India is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Switzerland-based and world’s leading, integrated solutions provider for pharma and consumer healthcare. Lonza started its operations in India in 1997 as a liaison office. The office was involved mainly into sourcing advanced intermediates from India. Lonza came in as a full-fledged sales and commercial organisation with the acquisition of Cambrex Bio Products in 2007 and was renamed as Lonza India in 2008.

As India is a strategic market for the company, Lonza India has set the target of doubling its turnover by 2024 with an estimated growth of over 14 per cent. Therefore, Lonza India, recently opened its Corporate Office in Gurugram (Delhi-NCR). The new office was inaugurated by Andreas Baum, Ambassador of Switzerland to India who emphasised on India and Switzerland’s full-fledged partnership with each side benefiting from the strength of the other.

Tell us about Lonza India’s product offerings and strategic focus?
The offerings consist of products for cell discovery, molecular biology, rapid testing tools, fine chemical intermediates and pharma and intermediates for agrochemicals, consumer health and nutrition, biocides for industrial application, disinfectants for hospitals and various performance chemicals. Lonza India is now focusing on achieving the strategic vision of being a leading, integrated solutions provider for its pharma, consumer healthcare and nutrition customers all along the healthcare continuum in India.

You have made some significant acquisitions in the past few years, Capsugel for instance. How have they helped you expand your capabilities for the pharma sector?
Capsugel is known to be a leader in capsule manufacturing, but has also been an important player in the entire overall dosage form solutions. It offers integrated, high-quality, highly customised solutions spanning from design to clinical and commercial manufacturing. In the meanwhile, Lonza has demonstrated great abilities in the manufacturing of small molecule APIs. There are thus a lot of synergies to be leveraged from combining the two entities. So, now Lonza is able to offer our existing and future customers services along the entire value chain from gene to patient.

In case of Capsugel, does a global presence give any advantage over competition?
As we have presence globally , our customers get flexibility in getting capsules across the globe like Japan, China, the US and Europe. Hence customers can get capsules wherever they need, the biggest advantage over other manufacturers. Our manufacturing process and quality systems are harmonised across all sites, which means a stronger and uniform quality along all sites.

What are the market trends in oral dosage forms? And how does Capsugel plan to capitalise on the opportunities in this competitive environment?
The benefits of using oral therapies is influencing pharma companies to develop new and improved oral therapies to support patients who need accuracy of dose, convenience and ease of compliance to medication regimen. The demand is also due to increase in the incidence of chronic diseases and technological advancements. Novel technologies are being developed to deliver drugs via an oral route. The evolving treatment regimens are influencing a trend for innovative processes and technological advancement where major pharma companies are investing in new target-based therapies. Capsugel’s high-quality, innovative dosage forms and solutions can help us capitalise on such emerging consumer trends as healthy ageing, sports nutrition and digestive health, while standing out in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Capsugel continues to launch ground-breaking capsule designs and equipment technologies that are improving drug development and delivery. Whether you’re looking to formulate new products or enhance an existing line, Capsugel has the right capsule to help you bring improved products to market faster. With a diverse portfolio including HPMC, liquid filled hard capsules, or specialised clinical capsules, we are a global leader in capsule development and manufacturing, bringing unmatched products and technical support to our worldwide customer base.

How does a global brand like Lonza offer continous value to its customers?
We have a large sales organisation who understands the needs of customers at local level. Also we have various global customers like Teva, Sandoz, Mylan who are present in India. We serve and meet their requirements as well. Moreover, now we are part of a larger family Lonza. Our activities include the sourcing of intermediates from strategic partners for our manufacturing plants worldwide. In India, we are catering to pharma giants such as Cipla, Sun, Aurobindo, DRL, Novartis.

Our customers in Specialty Ingredients include HUL, Asian Paints, Berger, and P&G to mention a few. Life sciences are yet another core area for Lonza and we are catering to research institutes like IIT, JNU, IGIB, NII and medical device companies like Baxter, Brawn. We are also expanding our markets in nutraceuticals and petrochemicals segments.

What are your core priorities going forward?
We aspire to change the company and the relationship with our customers from being ‘a’ functional service provider to being the knowledge partner of choice for supplying the most innovative solutions. We seek to be truly transformational during these extremely exciting times that we live in today in which medical science is making huge breakthroughs.