Frost & Sullivan organises Global Partnership Summit

EPP News Bureau - Goa

Frost & Sullivan, the global growth consulting company organised a global partnership summit on life-science molecules, recently in Goa. The conference was inaugurated by Aroop Zutshi, Senior Partner of Frost & Sullivan.

Corporate and Research Heads from Lonza, DSM Pharma Chemicals, Cambrex Corporation, LANXESS, Diosynth, Bachem, American Pharmaceutical Partners, Alpharma and Wyeth Research addressed the conference, which was spread over three days. Several thought leaders from some of the world’s leading companies spoke on subjects, some of which included, active pharma ingredients and intermediates, contract research, custom synthesis, and partner selection for new chemical entities.

J C Saigal, Executive Director (International), Nicholas Piramal India Ltd gave an introductory talk on Custom Manufacturing in India. Ed Robinson, Executive Vice-President, Europe and Asia, Cambrex Pharma and Biopharma, discussed the opportunities for Contract Research and Custom Synthesis in a changing global pharmaceutical environment and Dr Lukas Utiger, Head, Exclusive Synthesis, Lonza spoke on the opportunities for outsourcing and technology licensing.

The critical factors considered by international fine chemical manufacturers for sourcing intermediates, was discussed by Dr Ulrich Koemm, Board of Management, Lanxess AG, whereas critical factors for partner selection, in sourcing of New Chemical Entities (NCEs) was discussed by Dr. Michael Kolb, VP, Chemical Development, Wyeth Research.

The technical discussions were focussed on topics like Peptide synthesis, meeting the chiral challenge in drug synthesis, opportunities in niche technologies like the fluorine specialities and other novel synthesis technologies and their role in innovative API manufacture.

Aditya Sapru, Partner, Frost & Sullivan, made way for interesting facts and figures through his discussion on market opportunities for niche fine chemical manufacturers in technology driven markets, whereas the implications of the US and European Specialty Pharma Trend for Indian API companies were discussed by Robert Thong, managing director, NovaSecta, and Non-Executive Board Member, Alpharma.

Not only technical but also strategic and marketing issues were a part of the gathering, of the leaders from Indian and global pharmaceuticals and fine chemical industries. Added to the range of discussions and presentations were two interactive workshops - one on the generic drug industry, and the other on achieving successful outsourcing partnerships, facilitated by experienced professionals from around the world.

The workshop on the generic drug industry saw brainstorming on several issues, like identifying challenges in managing a generic drug pipeline, the pros and cons of entering regulated or less regulated markets, the regulatory procedures in filing DMFs and ANDAs and the effective management of time from drug development to commercialization and building efficient strategies for marketing.

The one on outsourcing partnerships included an interesting mix of topics like Tactical vs Strategic Partnerships, leveraging the Indian advantage for global success and the best practices for managing long term strategic relationships.

‘‘One can say that the opportunities that have, and would emerge post the introduction of product patents, increased R&D focus coupled with technical expertise of Indian manufacturers, and the determination to become world-class players, augurs well for the Indian pharmaceutical industry as a whole,’’ said Mamta Wadhwa, Practice Head-Chemicals Materials & Foods, Frost & Sullivan, India. ‘‘India has established itself as a key pharmaceutical world player; it is time Indian manufacturers positively seek and initiate strategic and sustainable partnerships,’’ she added. The mutual interest of Indian and western companies, the ability of Indian companies to adapt to modern technologies and the consequent enhanced focus on product innovation and strategic partnerships were thus the building blocks of Frost & Sullivan’s three-day conference.