Blueprint for progress
Experts and veterans examine and explore strategies for India Pharma Inc to implement the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic as we enter a new year and a new decade
The industry has focused on innovating business models in ways that are more patient-centric
The approval and launch of the COVID-19 vaccines is a beacon of hope as we enter 2021. Economic activity across markets has started normalising and we will continue to see stable trends and recovery and expect this momentum to be accelerated, particularly with the rollout of the vaccine.
The generic pharma industry has been focused on ensuring access of medicines to patients during these tough times and has ensured a stable supply chain through the pandemic. The industry has also focused on exploring ways of innovating business models in ways that are more patient-centric. The industry has leveraged technology to deliver information and medicines to patients and physicians in the backdrop of reduced in-person interactions.
We will seek to leverage these digital trends and we see digitalisation as a cornerstone of our business strategy, with a potential to impact across our value chain in research, manufacturing, quality operations, and commercial go-to-market strategies. Just as more patients seek engagement with physicians from the comfort of their homes through virtual platforms, we have been exploring ways of enabling our commercial teams to engage with Healthcare Practitioners (HCPs) via digital platforms. We look forward to accelerating this transformation across our value chain.
For us at Lupin, innovation is driven by what patients want and we are riveted to addressing their medical and access burden. We have accelerated the development of our novel products’ pipeline. We are excited and look forward to bringing these complex, limited-competition products to the market.
The thrust now should be on R&D to create new drug development opportunities
The disruption brought about by the pandemic made the pharma sector realise its strengths while exposing the chinks in the armour. Quick to realise its dependence on China for APIs, India soon reduced its dependence. Consequently, the government initiatives, which are already underway to make local drug manufacturers self-sufficient, will be crucial. Leveraging the ecosystem created during and before the pandemic, the thrust now should be on R&D to create new drug development opportunities. As an organisation, we would like to invest in R&D from our early success with the equine antibodies’ project. We are currently conducting phase III trials on Ulinastatin.
The pandemic tested the supply chain resilience too. It is imperative that the industry integrates digital innovation in a bid to strengthen the supply chain. Scaling up existing export markets while entering high-opportunity markets will create new avenues of growth. Also, the regulator and the industry have to display the same co-ordination and commitment as displayed during the pandemic to facilitate new growth areas for the sector.
A template for the future will be optimising the operations while developing enhanced trust in employees. A lean and efficient organisation improves efficiency while bringing down costs. Systems and initiatives that further enhance transparency, agility, accountability and collaboration will garner stakeholder confidence.
Innovative employee engagement practices built on greater trust in our people have empowered employees. A customer-centric and employee focused organisation is adept at wading through the challenges of the upcoming times.
Self-reliance and digitalisation will be a big part of our strategy
One of the biggest learnings, COVID-19 pandemic has brought us is that we, as individuals, as an industry and as a country, need to together work towards improving the healthcare system across the globe.
This year we needed to focus on the following:
- To look beyond regular by rising to the occasion
- The accelerated pace at which digitalisation needs to take place involving all stakeholders. We were able to transform and adapt ourselves quickly to the changing scenario.
We believe moving forward, self-reliance and digitalisation will be a big part of our strategy. We have aligned our supply chain and distribution strategies accordingly by making them more agile and resilient in face of disruptions. Digital tools and automation will play an essential role to expedite processes of approvals, remote monitoring, quality and risk – assessment amongst others.
We at Cadila Pharma continue to invest further in creating innovative healthcare solutions in the areas of vaccines, antibiotics and pain management, among other therapeutic areas. We are also looking at all government regulatory agencies for further alignment of their policies to support and ease the transition.
Create razor-sharp focus on prevention and wellness space
In reimagining its future success, India Pharma Inc must pay heed to all its learnings of the recent months – respecting nature, patient and employee centricity, agility and adaptability to embrace new technologies and work processes, de-risking, simplifying and strengthening its core business model, and finding traditional and unconventional avenues of growth.
Future success may depend on:
- Going beyond the development, manufacture and supply of products to weaving a web of services around them
- Embracing digi-tech across the value chain to find more efficiency, more predictability, friendlier and faster innovation and more precise customer touchpoints
- Reducing the carbon footprint of the total business including that of the supply chain and product end of life, to going carbon negative in 10-15 years by adopting renewable energy, green processes and creating carbon sinks
- Building a range of ‘biology’ and ‘clinical’ capabilities and go up the innovation value chain over the medium to long term
- Creating a razor-sharp focus on prevention and wellness space, with a keen eye on nutrition and proprietary Ayurveda
- Diversifying the geography and mix of supply to constantly integrate, indigenise and bring supplies closer to the markets
All stakeholders should work together to strengthen the clinical trial ecosystem in our country
That the COVID-19 pandemic has changed our world is clearly an understatement.
The initial days of the pandemic-induced lockdown led to difficulties in managing clinical trials. The patients could not visit hospitals and the logistics supply chain was also impacted. During this time, maintaining patient safety was of paramount importance and so was maintaining the quality and integrity of clinical trial data.
Many innovative risk mitigation strategies were deployed, for example:
- Direct to patient shipment of investigational medicinal products (IMP) so that the patient receives IMP at their home,
- Home nursing care visits for the administration of IMP or for collecting biological samples which were required for evaluating patients’ safety and IMP efficacy,
- Video/teleconsulting of trial participants by doctors, etc.
The clinical trial protocols were amended to accommodate the flexibility that was required to mitigate the pandemic induced risks. The Regulators and the Ethics Committees accorded priority review for such amendments.
While the pandemic accelerated the adoption of these changes that have made a positive impact, it is imperative that these should be continued in 2021 and beyond. Moreover, there will be a wide-scale adoption of digital technologies in clinical trials, e.g., digital biomarkers, digital informed consent, e-health record directly feeding data to the e-CRF, etc.
We will see more decentralised trials being conducted wherein the patient will be able to participate in the clinical trials from the comfort of his/her home and will need to visit the hospital site only for specific purposes.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused wide-scale awareness amongst the general public about the importance of clinical trials to prove the safety and efficacy of drugs and vaccines. This should continue since it will aid greatly in the development of innovative treatment options for the patients.
It will be important for all the stakeholders to work together in the future for strengthening the clinical trial ecosystem in our country. This will help in our endeavour of finding safe and efficacious treatment options for the unmet medical needs of our patients.