PHARMACONNECT 2019 held in Mumbai

Discussions at the conference touched upon every aspect of India’s pharmaceutical supply chain

Surecom Media’s annual flagship event PHARMACONNECT 2019 – Pharma Suppy Chain Conference was recently held in Mumbai, which was attended by more than 310 pharma and logistics industry professionals from around the country and abroad. Five panel discussions were held in the conference which touched each and every aspect of India’s pharmaceutical supply chain.

Ajeet Kumar, Surecom Media’s Director, provided the opening remarks and noted the organisation’s commitment to delivering first-rate logistics conferences to the entire industry. The conference formally commenced with the lighting of lamp by dignitaries — Bharat Thakkar, Joint Managing Director, Zeus Air Services; Julian Sutch, Pharma Global Sales, Emirates SkyCargo; Ryan Viegas, Former Head of Logistics – Asia, Teva Pharmaceuticals; Makarand Sane, General Manager – Export Logistics, Sun Pharmaceuticals and Smiti Suri, Publisher – Surecom Media.

The first panel discussion of the conference on ‘Mastering Import/Export Compliance for Global, Multi-Layered Supply Chain’ elucidated the elements of export compliance, import compliance and trade agreements. The panel saw Bharat Thakkar, Joint Managing Director, Zeus Air Services; Makarand Sane, General Manager- Export Logistics, Sun Pharmaceuticals; Julian Sutch, Pharma Global Sales, Emirates SkyCargo; Ryan Viegas, Former Head of Logistics – Asia, Teva Pharmaceuticals; and Shabana Khan, Chief Operation Officer, Hermes Travel and Cargo, as speakers who converged to discuss an integrated framework for international logistics and trade to ensure seamless supply of clinical materials.

In the second panel discussion, Surendra Deodhar, VP- Materials Management, Reliance Life Sciences; Rajesh J Rao, Head- Supply Chain Management, Cadila Pharmaceuticals; Raja Sundaramurthy, DGM – FDF Logistics, Mylan Labs; Balaji S, Sr Director – Industrial & Logistics Services, Advisory & Transactions, CBRE; Rajeshh Rao, Former Head – SCM, Emcure Pharma; Sanjay Kulkarni, Sr General Manager – Corporate Demand Planning, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals; and Rajesh Pednekar, Head – Logistics and Distribution, Cipla, brainstormed on the issues pertaining to ‘End-to-End Optimisation – Seamlessly transitioning operations from Product Development to Launch’.

The post lunch session kicked off with the third panel discussion on ‘Bridging Clinical and Commercial Operations.’ Addressing a dozen of questions of relevance on development and commercialisation of drugs and devices, accelerating regulatory and marketplace acceptance, and inter-company cooperation between teams- clinical researchers to product marketers so as to achieve accelerated clinical and commercial development, industry leaders — PK Gupta, President, Confederation of Indian Pharma Industry; DD Reddy, General Manager – Warehouse, Aurobindo Pharma; P Balasubramanian, Founder and CEO, Air Cargo Consultancy International Services; Sumedha Nadkar, Sr Director and Site Head, Research & Development, Consumer Healthcare, Perrigo Laboratories India; Manoj Subramanian, General Manager – West India, Flyjac Logistics; and Ryan Viegas, Former Head of Logistics- Asia Head, Teva Pharmaceuticals, discussed on the various factors that aims at crafting a balance between science and commercial strategies.

The fourth panel discussion of the conference ‘Why efficiency & efficacy matters and how can we get it delivered’ brought on stage Vinod Mulay, General Manager – Business Operations, Bilcare Limited-GCS; Manas Sahoo, Vice President – Supply Chain, Fresenius Kabi India; Vishal Shah, Executive Director, V-Xpress (a division of V-Trans India Ltd); Stanley Fernandes, Deputy General Manager – Export Logistics (International Business Division) Bharat Serums and Vaccines; Kapil Madhok, Country Manager – Air Services, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, Expeditors International (India); and Divyanshu Tambe, Executive Director, Ernst & Young, who briefed on integrated and collaborative approaches to develop sustainable supply and value chains that will enable Indian pharmaceutical companies to steadily reduce costs, increase their flexibility and delivery reliability, and maintain high standards of quality, safety and environmental protection on a global basis.

The fifth and last panel discussion witnessed professionals and specialists from the field- Lalit Patil, Manager – Supply Chain, Roche Pharmaceuticals; M K Roy, Vice President – Supply Chain, VIRBAC India; Vikas Rajput, Head of Logistics, Cipla; Jayanthi Bandi, Head – Global Logistics, Exceed Logistics; Radharamanan Panicker, Managing Director, Dangerous Goods Management India; Brijendra Kumar, Sr Manager – Logistics International Business, Mankind Pharma; and Arloph John Vieira, Sr Vice President, SCM – Kopran, sharing their knowledge and expertise on the topic ‘How do we bring about change in pharma delivery in the country’ and mapping out logistics strategies that need to be closely aligned with a company’s manufacturing and commercial strategies.