Pharma: ITing to Health

Globally speaking, the Indian pharma industry with over 20,000
registered manufacturers ranks 4^th in terms of volume and 13^th
in terms of value. Yet, when it comes to tech processes Indian pharma companies
had been quite languid. Thus, while the rest of the world raced ahead with newer
technologies, Indian firms lagged behind and in the process a big gap was
created over the years. The companies in India seemed to be quite satisfied with
producing generic drugs based on formulations arrived in the US or even Europe.
But all that was going to change with a single signature.

Some years back, India became a party to international trade
agreements and the whole scenario changed. Suddenly, there was talk about IPR
and patent production. Indian pharma companies had to play catch up and their
time was running out much faster. Considering these circumstances, the pharma
companies have done commendably well. "In comparison to other verticals,
for instance automotive, pharma sector has been indeed slow in terms of IT
adoption. Yet much has changed over the last few years, with the liberalization
and opening up of the market, pharma companies are embracing IT like never
before. And the transition is going to take place at a faster rate, if not the
same, over the years to come," says Venkat Iyer, director, Business
Technology, Pfizer.

The start was quite typical as most of the companies initially
went in for an enterprise resource management solution. The need for effective
management of the production processes was brought about by the implementation
of the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO).

Supply Change

If better production processes was the primary driver, supply chain was the
key. Faced with an uphill task of managing thousands of stockists and lakhs of
chemists, companies rapidly underwent automation of their chain.

"Of the biggest benefit of IT has been in terms of the way
we deal with our consumers, namely the automation of the sales force. The whole
process has been automated thereby resulting in real-time flow of data and
greater transparency across the whole process," says Milind Khamkar,
director, IT, Sanofi Aventis.

From R&D to Outsourcing

R&D came next, as many of the global pharma companies set up their
research centers on Indian soil. "It is a no-brainer that technology helps
immensely when it comes managing the production processes effectively. But the
biggest benefit can be seen in the research and development sector, where
cutting-edge and latest technology is being used by companies to stay a step
ahead of the competition," says Arun Phadke, VP, IT, Nicholas Piramal.

One of the things the pharma CIOs seemed to be reluctant for all
these years was outsourcing. Considering that R&D was the basis for a
company's success, it was not all that surprising. But the current CIOs seem
to have softened their stance, or at least their antipathy towards outsourcing.
Almost all spoken to agree that outsourcing was quite agreeable, depending on
"what we are talking about."

All's Well that Ends Well

A few years back the Indian pharma industry was a laggard in terms of tech
adoption, but now it is rated at par with best in the world. That calls for a
toast for the industry and surely the players have truly earned their laurels.

Shashwat Chaturvedi

maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in