Pharma Perspectives, A Holistic Approach To Thrive In The Post Pandemic World

The pandemic has revolutionised the lacklustre attitude of the pharmaceutical industry towards the adoption of technologies to facilitate healthcare. The industry, which was once apprehensive about adopting technologies, is now investing heavily to procure and provide state-of-the-art solutions, thus transforming the entire healthcare system.

In a recently concluded roundtable organised by BW Businessworld with some of India’s top mandarins in the world of healthcare and finance, a wide range of topics were discussed, including the impact of the pandemic on the pharmaceutical industry, new technologies leading to more operational efficiencies, initiatives to bring in more purpose and accountability, as well as the evolving trends in the industry.

Recalibrating the pharmaceutical industry:

Zydus Lifesciences, CFO, Nitin Parekh, mentioned that disruption did take place as a result of the pandemic. Parekh said, "For instance, in FY 21, the growth in the pharmaceutical industry was just limited to a meagre 2 per cent."

The industry bounced back quickly and achieved a 15 per cent growth in FY 2022. Parekh commented, "We as a country showed to the world that we are there to save the world. We came to the rescue of both Indian citizens as well as worldwide in terms of vaccine products and supply."

Recalibration occurred in three areas broadly encompassing the government, industry, and the customer. As Parekh highlighted, "Several measures were taken at the government’s end to become self-reliant as far as life-saving drugs are concerned."

Parekh pointed out that the virtual world has supported the pharmaceutical industry in terms of market access. He said, "Conference calls, telemedicine, and online consultations are now happening. There is some interesting statistical data to support this statement. The telemedicine industry is expected to exceed 5.4 billion dollars by 2025, with the online doctor consultation market growing at a rate of 72 per cent. As per Invest India, the entire digital health blueprint can be tagged with a value amounting to 200 billion dollars."  

"Also, there is a huge rise in the demand for medical devices, and collaboration movements are happening across the globe. At the customer level, health has now become a priority for people, and Zydus is reimagining its role from pharmaceutical to healthcare – moving beyond pills."

Parekh underlined that a change in mindset is of paramount importance. He said, "Hum bhi badle jab ye chaal waqt ki badley, nazre badley humne toh haar ek nazaara jeeta." (We should also change along with the demands of the time and when we change our viewpoint, we will win every situation).

Technology is driving the pharmaceutical industry:

Alembic Pharmaceuticals Limited, Senior Vice President – Finance & Investor Relations, Mitanshu Shah, suggested that the world in which we live today is drastically different from the world in which we were born. Shah said, "How we live our day-to-day life, work or shop has changed compared to what used to happen 20 years back."

Shah underlined the need to focus aggressively on technology as it has been the root cause of this fundamental change. He commented, "I recently heard that L & T, which is one of the biggest construction companies out there, wants to be known as a tech company. This is a big statement, as it suggests that the focus is now on the efficiency of products, services, and so on."

"We have used technology in the pharmaceutical space, and that has helped us. We have built-in robust systems which give us early warning if something is going to go wrong at the operations level or the plant level, "he added.

Shah cautioned that cyber threats do make the pharmaceutical industry vulnerable. He pointed out, "If there are firewalls in place, it will help give early warning and make one less susceptible to cyber-attacks. Heavy technological investments will de-risk the company big time from all other risks. It can act as an enabler for growth, and is the next-level which companies are now tapping into." 

Embracing and working alongside technology is going to pave the way toward a bright future.

The need to harness the latest technologies:

Sumedha Varma, Director, SAP Concur India, highlighted how technologies such as AR/VR, and RPA are helping pharmaceutical companies accelerate their R&D processes. Sumedha said, "Technology is helping the pharmaceutical industry to create personalised products, and conduct testing in innovative ways. In turn, these technologies are ultimately making companies more effective and efficient, and improving patient-provider as well as employee experience."

The benefits, or the ROI, which are experienced by the pharmaceutical companies are evident in the technology investment numbers. She highlighted, "The investment has hit an all-time high in 2022 itself, and is expected to go up daily. Some of the disruptive technologies which have led to greater operational efficiencies, innovation, productivity, and business gains include AI, which is becoming increasingly pivotal in this industry, and is already improving the industry with its immense predictive and data analytics capabilities."

Sumedha gave an example to prove her argument. She commented, "In R&D, the use of AI enables analysis of patterns in data sets to understand the implications, benefits, and success rates of new drugs before launching them into the market, which saves a lot of money. Also, it is being used in fraud detection, mitigating asset misappropriation, and risk within organisations."

Sumedha pointed out how pharmaceutical organisations can harness blockchain technology. She said, "It can be used in areas like supply chain management, serialization, identity management, transaction processing, contract and licencing management, as well as document management."

Sumedha mentioned how cloud computing can be successfully utilised by organisations to increase their internal efficiency. She commented, "Cloud computing can improve the availability and quality of data, which ultimately enables CFOs to create strategic insights, and drive business outcomes while minimising concerns around data security, and regulatory compliance.

Lessons learnt from the pandemic:

Metrochem API, CFO, Chandramani Panda, pointed out that the pandemic was the number one black swan event in the last hundred years.

Panda said, "The pandemic came in waves after waves, and no one had a clue about it. It has now taught us that we need to maintain adequate key production inventories in stock, need to have adequate free capacity to take market advantages, stay nimble-footed and maintain enough liquidity in the system. Several companies were forced to shut their doors due to lack of adequate liquidity."

Panda mentioned that along with staying nimble-footed, one needs to be ready to save lives too, as profit-making is not the sole objective in the pharma industry but saving lives remains a unique objective associated with this industry.

The never predicted and seemingly to be ever-remembered Coronavirus came with double whammies like Ever-Given and Ever Grande.

Panda also discussed the Ever Given ship, which got stuck in the Suez Canal for 6 days and froze 10 billion dollars in trade per day. He said, "The stuck container ship caused a substantial delay to Indian pharmaceutical shipments to North America and Europe.

In addition to it, the Evergrande debt default episode not only has shaken China’s Financial system but also it added additional pain to the global pharma raw materials sourcing value-chain for some time.

And now, with the fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic impacting China, inventory procurement has become a major challenge. Companies are now running from pillar to post to procure production sensitive Key-Starting-Materials ( KSMs) and APIs even after agreeing to pay a significant premium."

Bringing in purpose and accountability:

Sumedha Varma mentioned that SAP’s purpose is to help the world run better and improve people’s lives. Sumedha said, "With a commitment to serve both as an exemplar and enabler of purpose, SAP is making an impact in areas such as circular economy, climate action, skilled inclusive workforce, equality for all, social and inclusive entrepreneurship, and mental health well-being." 

"Since purpose in business goals should be aligned, measurable, and include clear timelines with specific objectives defined for different parts of the business, we have woven purpose into the organization's DNA, i.e., within our business processes, new talent strategies and advanced data management to successfully execute on strategic and social goals," she added.

Sumedha highlighted that SAP has established clear goals for non-financial indicators. She commented, "We are measuring our performance in diversity, equity, and reduction in greenhouse gas and other emissions as part of our integrated reporting. We also aim to achieve carbon neutrality by 2023, and our data centres are already carbon neutral. We have taken an innovative approach to reduce the carbon footprint related to a traveller."

Sumedha also underlined the fact that they are engaging with suppliers who are diverse and inclusive, such as minority and women-owned businesses, as well as small businesses.

Future trends to watch out for:

Sumedha Varma underlined that, traditionally, the pharmaceutical industry has been slow in embracing new technology, but this trend is now witnessing a paradigm shift.

Sumedha said, "Some of the major trends that will have a major impact on the pharmaceutical industry include wearable tech integrations, as it will allow pharmaceutical companies to do more than just manufacture, market, and sell drugs. This technology provides patients with greater power to monitor their condition and make critical decisions."

"There is already a wide range of remote patient monitoring devices that make it possible for doctors to monitor glucose and blood pressure metrics and keep tabs on chronic conditions like diabetes and asthma. In a nutshell, a better experience and care for patients," she added.

Sumedha highlighted the fact that the cost of R&D is one of the major roadblocks for pharmaceutical organisations to come up with a new drug, and this is one key area where technology can be successfully embraced.

She commented, "By leveraging big data, pharmaceutical researchers can shorten exploration cycles, leading to a quicker discovery, and distribution of new drugs. It can also help determine side effects of a drug beforehand and thus reduce the overall time and cost of the production of a drug."

Sumedha pointed out that pharmaceutical organisations need to be well prepared to deal with evolving technology, supply chain integrity, and its integration to reap the benefits of the technology introduction in full.

Laurus Labs, Director & CFO, VV Ravi Kumar suggested that in the upcoming future, governments and pharmaceutical companies across the world will try to become self-reliant.

Ravi mentioned that several new technologies are now coming up. He said, "For instance, in the treatment of cancer, experts can take a T-cell out of a patient, modify the cell, and re-inject it back, such that it can generate antibodies to fight the disease."

Ravi emphasised the fact that in order to implement new technologies and sustain them, a large amount of capital will be required. Another major challenge Kumar highlighted was how important it is to build efficient teams and to check the attrition rate within an organisation.

He commented, "It is easy to get people into your organisation, but it is not so easy to induct efficient people into your organisation. Also, people are leaving changing the organisations quickly which will not be good for the people and the organisations. in droves now, especially those coming from the IT segment. This needs to be taken care of."

The panellists concluded the roundtable discussion by expressing how much potential there remains in the technology sector waiting to be tapped in the upcoming future.