We will look at further expanding our footprint in India by relying on innovative new products

Shripad Joshi, President - India and South Asia, PerkinElmer talks about his company's plans for the India market and informs that a stream of new product introductions across life sciences, pharma and food testing will help Perkin Elmer strengthen its positions in these key end markets, in an exclusive interview with Lakshmipriya Nair

The pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have posed unprecedented difficulties to businesses worldwide. They had to adapt to massive shifts in market dynamics. What were the biggest challenges for PerkinElmer and how were they dealt with?

Much of the conventional wisdom around the way business is done was turned on its head these last 15+ months. While the pandemic and lockdowns posed new challenges, providing solutions to our customers who are fighting the pandemic itself as well customers in pharma, food testing and other essential markets required us to be more agile and innovative to ensure that they continue to get the service that they have come to expect of us. We’ve sped up and improved many of the initiatives around customer service, be it ramping up our remote service capabilities, utilizing high-end technology for a greater customer experience for virtual demos or the tools and training available for our sales teams to become more effective in selling.

What were your key learnings from the upheaval caused by the pandemic? How did they help in restructuring the company’s growth strategies?

PerkinElmer is exiting the pandemic stronger and in faster-growing markets – and I couldn’t be more excited about the future. Outside of the great performance, we are having today and our strong outlook for the future, I am proud and excited for what PerkinElmer has been able to contribute to society over the last year and a half. The company’s success is a byproduct of the great work our employees do each and every day.

While our Applied Genomics portfolio enabled us to support COVID-19 testing across the country, our stream of NPIs across life sciences, pharma and food testing helped us to strengthen our positions in these key end markets. As we move forward, commercial execution of our NPIs, market-focused solutions and unmatched customer experience will be the key pillars of our growth strategy.

How big will be your focus on the life sciences sector in the next few years? What are the opportunities that you seek to leverage in pharma and healthcare?

Pharma is a very important market for us. With Indian pharma expected to grow at a very impressive CAGR over the next few years, we are very well positioned to serve our customers. Our solutions span across the entire pharma value chain from disease discovery to quality control and manufacturing. The recent Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes for pharma will also trigger further investments. PerkinElmer has a strong leadership position in preclinical animal imaging, high throughput and high content screening, atomic and molecular spectroscopy as well as gas chromatography.

Our recently launched liquid chromatography platform LC300 will further bolster our position in the life sciences and pharma segment.

How can the new LC 300 HPLC/UHPLC systems help pharma laboratories who have been using other makes, traditionally, through the years?

LC 300 HPLC/UHPLC is an outcome of the tireless efforts of our team. The product is a result of our countless interviews listening to customers explain their needs, challenges with existing platforms and areas where they wanted us to focus upon. Further, our new software platform “Simplicity” was built keeping in mind all the regulatory requirements that a pharma lab needs while ensuring a new age GUI and ease of use. LC300 HPLC/UHPLC will continue to be a key aspect of our portfolio. We believe this solution not only meets today’s challenging laboratory needs but also strengthens our position in the chromatography market.

Where does India fit into PerkinElmer’s global vision? What are the unique opportunities and challenges offered by the Indian market?

India is a very important market for PerkinElmer and our footprint here goes beyond being a sales, service and application set-up. With the acquisition of Tulip Diagnostics in 2017, we also have a significant manufacturing footprint in the country. Furthermore, we believe that the commercialisation of technologies for local consumption will play a very important role in driving future growth in the country.

What are the key goals for the company in the next three years? What is the roadmap to achieve them?

We strongly believe in the potential of India and our key end markets, including life sciences, diagnostics and food will continue to provide many exciting opportunities. Our organic expansion with new product introductions (NPIs) in analytical and food portfolio, coupled with series of recent acquisitions of Horizon Discovery Group PLC, Oxford Immunotec Global PLC, OMNI International, Nexcelom Bioscience and Immunodiagnostic Systems Holdings PLC in the life sciences and diagnostics space has positioned us to meet our customer needs today and down the road. We will look at further expanding our footprint in India by relying on innovative new products while continuing to focus on enhancing the customer experience.

lakshmipriya.nair@expressindia.com

laxmipriyanair@gmail.com

Applied GenomicsCOVID-19 testingnew product introductionsPerkinElmerpharma laboratoriespharma value chainPLI schemesShripad Joshi
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