SPECIAL FEATURE iPHEX concludes in Hyderabad

Our bureau, Mumbai

The 9th edition of iPHEX took place in Hyderabad from 5-7 July 2023 and it was organised by Pharmexcil. Veermani in his welcome address said, "Indian pharma goes to more than 200 countries. Pharma is considered one of the biggest exporter from India, target for this year is US$ 28bn. India exports vast range of products. India has good reservoiours of pharma scientist. This event will have more than 350 exhibitors and more than 10,000 visitors (domestic and international expected). I would like to welcome everyone at this event. Ravi Uday Bhaskar, "I would like to welcome everyone at this event, iPHEX was started for business meetings and platform for business engagements. More than 100 countries have participated in iPHEX since its inception. In 2022 we organised global regulators meet and we are focusing more on G20. There is huge business prospects for India. We need to discuss, how to move forward. Future is going to be bioipharma, biosimilar and vaccines. Focus is also on quality compliance. Dr Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi, "Its me pleasure to be part of this show and to be with everyone and to put my views in front of you. Pharma business in India is currently US$ 50 bn and by 2028 it is projected to be US$ 100 bn and by 2030 it is going to be US$120-130 bn. We are supplying 25% medicines to UK, 50% to African countries. More than 200 countries are served by Indian companies. There is lot of opportunity for Indian pharma business. We also have to understand, core of this business in quality. We have to come out of short term goals. Quality is integral part of pharma business. We have to find purpose which is bigger than individual which will help us to grow. Lot of faciliation is happening in regulations. We are trying to do lot of things to do ease of business. World has recognised the potential of Indian pharma industry. Govt is facilating regulations for medical devices. There is lot of opportunities in medical devices business. IPA along with Pharmaexcil launched study report at the event.

Madan Mohan Reddy, "Indian pharma has achieved significant growth in domestic and global market. We contribute more than 20% generic in global market and more than 60% vaccines globally. Industry employee’s more than 20 million people and we have to enhance our pharma products. There are few hurdles for the market. Keeping this in mind we did study on the barrios for the market. This is the first and we will keep updating this report. Intend of report is to throw some light on the barriers".

Indu Nair, "Its pleasure to be part of this event. India is 3rd largest pharma players. World relies on Indian pharma companies. We have robust infrastructure and we also have huge presence in South Africa and 38.2% generic market share in Africa. We look for more MOUs and more business. Quality control is on right track now. Enhance cooperation in pharma is in discussion Future phase will be faster. We are working on backward integration”.

The event also saw conference on 'Quality compliance and patient safety'. The speakers at the event were Dr Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi, DCGI; Dr. Chava Satyanarayana, Chief Executive Officer, Laurus Labs Ltd; Girish Kapur, VP & India Site Operations & Site Head, USP; Dr P. Veer Raju, Vice President, Regulatory AffairsQuagen Pharma LLC, USA; Dr Ranga Reddy Burri,

President Infection Control Academy and Honarary Professor, University of Hyderabad. Dr Ranga said, "Very rarely talk about patient. Unfortunately in decision making, he is the last person who is contacted. Infact, he should be contacted first. Pharma vigilance, there is lot of big moment in recent times, in last five years pharma vigilance has ramped up." Dr Raju, "Pharma vigilance is one the product. Adverse reporting does happen, because every patient is different." Mr Kapur said, "All the big pharma companies have technologies to test API and other formulations. We work closing with intuitions, regulators, etc." Dr Chava said, "Kind of China is investing is much more than India. Unless we change from manufacturing to innovations, it will be difficult. We have to make regulations, sustainable for the pharma industry." Dr Rajiv, "Pharma is not like any other industry. Regulators are not only here for policing but to help the industry. It’s a knowledge based industry. If we take quality of the basic ingredients, then pharma industry can do wonders Products has to be made for patients and not for regulators. There is no room for compromising on quality of the product. Corona has changed the perception of people. Number of application for modern therapies is increasing day by day and there will be lot of approvals.

The second conference was on CEO's roundtable on potential collaborations among G20 countries: Business prospects for India. The discussion areas for the conference was global economic conditions and policy measures for combating healthcare expenditures leading to enhanced generic uptake; impact of price control measure in some G20 countries, benefiting Indian pharma; challenges in complying with diverse regulatory frameworks among G20 countries; potential areas of collaboration in Research and Development (R&D), JV and contract manufacturing, etc; Key strategies Indian pharmaceutical companies can adopt to enhance their market penetration in G20 countries. Second day saw the conference on 'Biopharmaceuticals' and to discuss the urgency for capacitybuilding and expanding the scope of the National Biopharma Mission to make bio manufacturing a US$ 100bn in India by by 2025 and double it by 2030. Dr Murali, president, Council of presidents, ABLE was the moderator. Speakers for the conference were Dr Subhra Ranjan Chakrabarti, directoroperations, BIRAC; Nitish Kumar, head of customer applications, Downstream, India, Merc Life Sciences; Ganesh Reddy, global headBiologics Manufacturing, Biocon Biologics Limited; Dr Jugnu Jain, CEO, Sapien Biosciences; Dr Devesh Bhardwaj, head biotechnology, Mankind Pharma. Next conference was on vaccines and discussion areas was India as a vaccine manufacturing hub is well accepted globally. The emergence of technologies like mRNA and the urgent need to invest in vaccine R&D and the role stakeholders like Union States, industries and others. Speakers for the conference were Dr Vinod Pantula, head- Vaccine development, Dr Reddys Laboratories; Dr SwarnenduKaviRaj, executive director R&D, Gennova Biosciences; MouryaBoa, Chairperson and Managing Director, Brilliant Biopharma; Brij B Baluni, Sr GMmanufacturing- Zydus Group; Atin Tomar, co-founder and CEO, Yapan Bio.