Concern Pharma - Mid Pharma Player
It is said that “Pride slays thanksgiving, but a humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves”. We have one such man with us today – Mr M.M Yousuf, Chairman of Concern Pharma who has with him a sheer 3 decades of experience in the Pharma Industry. Having awarded “Indian Pharmacist Of The Year" by the IPA (Indian Pharmaceutical Association) in the year 2006, he still continues to remain humble, polite and modest as ever. He is also pr esently the President of Indian Pharmaceutical Association (TN).
It is said that “Pride slays thanksgiving, but a humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves”. We have one such man with us today – Mr M.M Yousuf, Chairman of Concern Pharma who has with him a sheer 3 decades of experience in the Pharma Industry. Having awarded “Indian Pharmacist Of The Year" by the IPA (Indian Pharmaceutical Association) in the year 2006, he still continues to remain humble, polite and modest as ever. He is also pr esently the President of Indian Pharmaceutical Association (TN).
About the company, growth of Concern Pharma – The Company is in integrated, research based, pharmaceutical company, producing a wide range of quality medicines. Some of the widely accepted products of company are Discon-P, Cerncold etc. The company is also in Herbal products. We have global presence too in countries like Uzbekistan, Nigeria, Uganda etc. We have a market share of 15%.
On Quality consciousness by Indian Pharma players – Our former President of India Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam rightly said once that, out of 3 drugs used by developed countries, one is from India. That shows the quality we maintain.
On Active Pharmaceutical ingredients (API’s) – Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra developing API because of Infrastructure and better facilities provided. Tamil Nadu is growing as it can be seen in terms of FDI inflow in this sector. Indian Pharmaceutical industry is among the most vital providers of API’s (Active pharmaceutical ingredients) around the world. India, in 1970’s, chose to overlook product patents in pharmaceutical products. This allowed indigenous manufacturers to grow ground-breaking processes and product drugs at a fraction of price of innovator companies. This actually set the trend. It also allowed India to emerge as a universal player in API manufacture.
On China as a competitor - In 2005, India decided to recognize product patents. The Leaders in Indian Pharma endure to do well – maintained by a slew of patent expiries that is to happen in the current decade – the pipeline of new API’s remains stout for now – but there is a new intimidation on the horizon – the Chinese Industry. API’s are themselves manufactured from ‘Key starting material’ (KSM’s). As the name implies, these are chemical building blocks that are used to make API’s. Given a choice between commoditized KSM and regulated API’s, Indian companies have focused on API’s, preferring to outsource KSM’s – mostly from China.
India today imports almost 30% of its global Pharma imports from China – most of it in the form of KSM’s and intermediates. The Chinese producers often engage in monopolistic practices and predatory pricing. Take the case of KSM’s for Ciprofloxacin. Indian companies almost gave up manufacture of Cipro KSM’s due to pricing pressure from Chinese imports. With most Cipro manufacturers now importing KSM’s from China, prices have doubled in last 6 months.
About Regulatory changes, US FDA issue etc – We have the best facilities with us. Changes in the regulatory environment are likely to pose additional challenges for India. Pharma regulators are increasing their oversight across the supply chain. Thus far, facilities used to manufacture KSM’s were outside the scope of regulatory inspections. This many soon change. It is likely that new regulations will require KSM facilities to be tied into the approval for manufacture of API. Modification of import and export policy would be great heed for Pharma sector. In the Quality assurance, infrastructure control – more documentation process is there and hence at times there might be few lapses leading to displeasing comments from USFDA.
On Challenges faced by Pharma Industry – The Manufacturing cost is usually not taken care of. API development can reduce threat from China. The Companies have to spend more amount and resources on R&D. More companies outside India are coming to set up operations, so Pharma industry is becoming more competitive. Only 60% potential is reached. We still have 40% more left. There is great potential in this sector.
3 big ideas which can change the industry – We need to have better infrastructure facilities and compared to world Pharma companies, India is spending very low on R&D because of lack of resources and margins. Recently big Indian companies have started spending more than 10% of their sales on R&D, mainly on new drug delivery systems. The increase in allocation in R&D is going to be a key spot. Young scientist coming up with various innovative ideas and their knowledge is going to be the biggest thrust for Indian Pharma sector. A lot of new molecules, new drugs are been found out. This will lead to a cycle of creation of new job opportunities.
