With over 14 years of direct operations in India, Cole-Parmer shares a very strong association with pharmaceutical industry and has recently launched its first ‘Pharma Resource Book 2019-20’, dedicated to pharma needs from R&D to production. On the occasion, Rakesh Aggarwal, MD-Asia Pacific, who is responsible for deploying the company’s strategic vision and developing business alliances as well as managing his team shared thoughts behind their pharma resource book, product launches and company’s expansion plan.

Edited Excerpts:

Cole-Parmer is growing significantly in India—what is the secret of success in competitive as well as challenging markets?

Cole-Parmer is known for bringing unique and quality products to the market, reaching customers in the most efficient way, and giving them exceptional service. Customers rely on us, as we understand their complexities of having small lab-scale batches to full production runs. We provide them individual solutions with our proven and qualified products and help them reduce their operation costs by centralising and simplifying procurement. This gives us a competitive edge.

Please share a bit about your association with the Pharmaceutical Industry.

Our close association with the pharmaceutical industry has enabled us to develop products and solutions to meet the industry’s stringent requirements for testing and manufacturing. In the pharmaceutical industry, the customers’ operate in most dynamic environments where compliance, accuracy and accountability are critical. Changes in regulations by leading bodies have increased the significance of regulatory compliance management. We help our customers comply with the toughest regulatory demands and the highest industry standards. Our products meet the highest quality standards and conform to good cGMP and cGAMP (Good Automated Manufacturing Standards). We provide our customers with tailor-made solutions to help them speed up their product development and time to market.

Can you please share with us the highlights of the “Pharma Resource Book”?

This is our first ever ‘Pharma Resource Book’, dedicated to pharma/biopharma industry and their needs from R&D to fill/finish. The products are mapped as per a typical pharma workflow from R&D, Quality, Production, Projects, EHS, and to the Warehouse. The book offers a wide range of laboratory essentials, cleanroom & safety products, fluid handling products, lab equipment, electrochemistry, test and measurement, cell culture, and chromatography products. It addresses the pain areas of the customers, be it related to compliance, SOP challenges, quality standards, or traceability issues.

This resource book is developed based on the inputs and feedback from our key customers. The products and specifications meet most of the pharmaceutical industry standards. So, the outcome is this one-stop solution customers’ need today from a scientific expert. Therefore, the customers will relate to this book, not just any other catalog, but as their best resource.

How would you differentiate Cole-Parmer positioning in Indian market with others?

We started as a catalog company and today customers see us as Scientific Experts and a Preferred Solution Provider. Our consistency in delivering quality, combined with the latest, hard-to-find products and value-added services has contributed to this change.

With multiple choices available with the customers, they look at customized convenient solutions and experience. Over the years, we have developed a strong team of application experts, service and technical team, who ensure to give customer end-to-end support and partner in resolving their challenges. They offer unbiased answers for product selection and technical questions. Beyond helping with product selection, our technical experts also assist customers in troubleshooting existing products, maintenance, repair and providing qualification service (IQ/OQ) with complete documentation support.

What have been the recent activities in terms of product launches for you? Any plans for expansion of new product lines?

The company aims at continuous growth and therefore is meticulously investing in enhancing its product portfolio. We have added many renowned brands in the last three years to widen our pharma solutions— Kinesis®, Jenway®, Stuart®, Traceable®, Electrothermal®, VapLock®, and Ismatec® to name a few. We have now a full range of products to offer for cleanroom environments, product and personal safety, test and measurement, and end-to-end solutions for applications like fluid transferring, liquid handling, spectroscopy, and cell culture. We’ve developed a broad portfolio for aseptic fluid transfer applications, including a wide range of single-use products such as bioprocess bags and liners, manifolds, and EZ Top® container closures. We are amongst very few companies who manufacture pharmaceutical latex gloves, specifically made for pharmaceutical applications addressing related stringent regulatory concerns. We’ve developed a wide portfolio of latex and nitrile gloves for various pharma applications, with complete validation support including factory audit, making it a reliable choice for the customers.

Another recent addition to the portfolio is chromatography solutions, which includes protein separation columns, fittings, Vaplock® solvent delivery and waste systems, SGE micro syringes, D2 and HC lamps, and vast range of AccuStandard® standards.

How will Cole Parmer support the industry players with your technical knowhow and tools?

We are continuously investing in bringing cutting-edge technologies to help our customers enhance their productivity and efficiency. In today’s digitized world, customers want to monitor their product in real-time and remotely control them. We have enabled them to bring IoT into their labs, thru which they can securely, real-time control and monitor the product and safely upload, acquire and share data via cloud. Right now, this technology is equipped MasterflexLive™, CPLive™ and TraceableLive™ products and soon will be extended to other products.

Our pharma resource book produces synergistic effect in combination with our robust and smart phone friendly website. With easy-to-navigate menus and filtering capabilities, customers can find products in seconds. The website provides easy-to-create product comparison charts, technical articles and how-to videos.

What kind of growth will be looking at in 2019 in India and Asia Pacific region?

We are looking at higher growth in 2019. Pharmaceutical market in India and APAC looks very promising. Pharma and Biopharma companies are meticulously investing in expansion and new developments, so the market scenario looks very positive and so does our business. We are looking to continue our expansion in the APAC marketplace and continue to strengthen our commercial presence in these regions. We are working with leading pharma giants, and we will continue to focus on large global corporate companies who have presence across nations. This will help us propel our growth.