https://biospectrumindia.com/rssfeed/bio-interactions/e-%20magazine e- magazine https://biospectrumindia.com/views/84/19081/lab-automation-travails-in-india.html https://biospectrumindia.com/views/84/19081/lab-automation-travails-in-india.html Fri, 02 Jul 2021 12:00:00 +0530 The process of turning analog information into a digital format has taken over many aspects of our lives whether in the form of bank statements or medical records. Similar is the case with science. All over the world, researchers are swapping their pens, notebooks, and sticky notes for digital technologies such as Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs), Scientific Data Management Systems (SDMSs), Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS), and Manufacturing Execution System (MES) etc. Whether it is the industry or academia, life sciences workers are gradually accepting the fact that lab data digitisation improves processes, simplifies workflows and makes research and development (R&D) more efficient. With increasing advances in machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), digitisation in the research environment is set to become an integral part of every laboratory. The global lab automation market was valued at $4.57 billion in 2020 and it is expected to reach a value of $6.67 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 6.6 per cent. Particularly with the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increased pressure on the laboratories to increase testing labs' capacity and speed. With the increase in the number of samples being tested every day, the lab automation space has been witnessing a growth in the developments of digitised systems by vendors, which is expected to create opportunities for the market’s growth. Moreover, laboratories often face pressure to produce faster turnaround time, while also reducing errors to enhance patient care and therefore are using automation and robotics pervasive in clinical laboratories. The high-end automation in instruments and modular systems offers an array of features that are extremely user-friendly. Most of these instruments can be integrated with IT to maximise the benefits of laboratory automation, which offer mechanised solutions in each phase of workflow in a lab. Thus based on the end user, the concept of lab automation is likely to penetrate effectively across a range of industries in the coming years, such as biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and diagnostic laboratories, research and academic institutes, forensic laboratories, environmental testing laboratories, food & beverage industry, to name a few. "We foresee growth in automated room disinfection technologies due to their key advantages over manual disinfection such as even and consistent distribution of disinfectant across all exposed surfaces; process repeatability with validated high level sporicidal efficacy; less facility downtime and reduced labour requirements, freeing up operators to work on other tasks. However, unlike manual cleaning there is an upfront investment for capital equipment to perform automated room disinfection, and time is needed, albeit brief, for installation and commissioning of integrated equipment”, says John Chewins, Senior Regulatory Affairs Manager, Bioquell, UK.   Lab Automation Market Dynamics The total lab automation space is spread across a number of equipment and software such as laboratory information management system, chromatography data system, electronic lab notebook, scientific data management system, to name a few. Out of these, laboratory information management system (LIMS) is expected to hold the largest market share in the years to come. The software is not only used to manage and aggregate data from samples and automate workflows, it also helps in tracking the lots and reagents which helps in predetermining and understanding the required lab agents and resources. LIMS additionally offers various benefits such as integration with other in-lab systems, enabling smooth functioning and gathering data at a single place. In clinical research applications, LIMS offers flexibility in the configuration of applications since clinical labs are often tasked with meeting specific regulatory requirements. On the whole, the inclusion of robotics and automation is becoming a major factor aiding the transformation of the clinical research industry. Subsequently, the application of lab automation is now spanning across many segments such as drug discovery, diagnostics, genomics, proteomics, microbiology etc.   To read the full story, click here... ]]> https://biospectrumindia.com/features/84/17859/2021-setting-waves-of-glocal.html https://biospectrumindia.com/features/84/17859/2021-setting-waves-of-glocal.html Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0530 Much of the world has spent the last two quarters under some form of lockdown hoping for a therapy or vaccine that will put an end to the pandemic. While most industries have been struggling with the impact of COVID-19 and the slow moving economy, there is one industry that has quickly adapted itself so as to control the situation i.e. the life sciences industry. The pandemic has made India realise the importance of biomedical resources for the healthcare system and research community. It has pushed India to optimise the latent capabilities it possesses across the public and private sector to promote indigenous development and manufacturing particularly in the space of diagnostics and medical devices. The current situation has come across as a catalyst to reinforce the Make in India initiative. The building of indigenous diagnostic and medical technology capabilities is a major trend to look up to in 2021 especially after the government having given approval for setting up four medical device parks with a view to support Make in India initiative and provide world-class products at affordable price for treatment. “One of the new high growth sectors where export driven world class manufacturing facilities can be established in India is the medical devices. India ranks in top 20 in the world by market size. Indian medical devices industry is growing at a CAGR of 16 per cent against global growth rate of 4 per cent in the sector. The industry is valued at $5 billion and contributes only 4-5 per cent of India’s total healthcare sector of $97 billion”, points out Sudhir H Kapadia, National Tax Leader, EY India, Mumbai. Secondly, the pandemic has forced the pharma industry to move beyond its traditional methods of operating. For instance, as the confidence over the Chinese supply chain weakened, manufacturers started examining alternative sources for active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) outside China, particularly for India which is the largest producer of generic medicines catering to over 60 per cent of the world's demand. Although, the dependence on China for APIs has been an ongoing concern for the industry, the outbreak of coronavirus disease turned around as a wake-up call for the India’s pharmaceutical industry, asking for a holistic ecosystem to capitalise on the full potential of its API manufacturing capabilities. Revival of India’s API industry is another major trend to look forward to in 2021. It seems likely to be possible especially with the government set to establish three bulk drug parks, each with an investment of Rs 10,000 crore, to reduce the dependence of the Indian drug manufacturing companies for API, especially from China.  “The Indian API industry has been struggling for a long time because of high dependence on China, which accounts for the bulk of the total imports. Because of this, API prices have been very volatile and we have seen prices of APIs going up by more than 100 per cent in the recent past. India needs a conducive ecosystem to rebuild its API manufacturing capabilities, which would require favourable policies from the government and a supportive financial ecosystem to boost private and foreign investment”, says Sujay Shetty, Partner, Health Industries, PwC India, Mumbai.  Another trend likely to be adopted in 2021 is increased collaboration and partnership. At present, the need to accelerate the development and production of COVID-19 vaccines has given rise to several public and private partnerships. The industry is also witnessing a rise in novel cross-sectoral partnerships.  For example, Pune based Serum Institute of India is manufacturing doses for a COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by the University of Oxford in the UK. Similarly, Hyderabad based Biological E has partnered with US based Baylor College of Medicine to scale-up the manufacturing process and undertake further development of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate. These are just a few examples out of the many local and global partnerships India has witnessed in 2020, owing to the ongoing pandemic. Talking about the prospects for the biopharmaceutical industry for 2021 Dr K V Balasubramaniam, Life Sciences Consultant and former Managing Director, Indian Immunologicals Ltd, Hyderabad said “The COVID-19 pandemic and the remarkable response of the vaccine industry to offer cost effective solutions marks a new chapter in the history of the global vaccine industry. I expect that with strong economic recovery and increased government spending on healthcare in India, and specifically with large purchases of COVID-19 vaccines, the vibrant vaccine industry in India will witness huge growth in revenues and profitability. The same will hold for biotherapeutics and diagnostics also. I expect that new players seized with the good business prospects will enter the biopharmaceutical market resulting in increased competition intensity”. “India can leverage its strength in manufacturing and science & technology capabilities. India can be primed to be the hub for research, innovation and shared services; and an integral partner of global R&D chain.  Today, more than ever, there is a pressing need for industry, government, academia, and startups to come together to create innovation hubs in the country where research can be undertaken. This can happen when we create a strong IP and regulatory ecosystem with a heightened focus on digital innovation, biotechnology, and thrust on R&D partnership models”, shares KG Ananthakrishnan, Director General, Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI), Mumbai. Adding on, the need to reinvigorate drug development and boosting the R&D ecosystem will require more attention in 2021. Companies would need the right technology and solutions for advancement of drug research. In the race to find vaccines, drug repurposing has emerged as the fastest route to deliver drugs to the market. Researchers need to work on building a central repository of information about drugs being repurposed to speed up the process of getting drugs to market and helping pharma companies make informed decisions. Setting a perfect example is New Delhi based Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) that has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) based model to repurpose existing drugs for COVID-19 treatment. This new trend of drug repurposing brings the focus on the growing adaptability of the new age technologies such as AI, machine learning, big data, robotics, 3D printing, blockchain etc., that are likely to be the front runners for 2021. For example, Mumbai based IT firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has recently deployed a blockchain based digital supply chain platform to scale up indigenous COVID-19 diagnostic test-kit production capacity to a million test kits a day. “Blockchain has shown potential in tracking and tracing products right from creation to sale in various industries. If adopted in the pharma supply chain, it can help companies foresee an unexpected surge in demand which can help in identifying the source of disruption”, says Subhro Mallik, Senior Vice President & Global Head of Life Sciences, Infosys, US. According to a recent global survey conducted by Deloitte, more than 60 per cent of life sciences companies spent over $20 million on AI initiatives in 2019, and more than half expect investments in AI to increase in 2020. The survey also revealed that 43 per cent of the life sciences companies reported having successfully used AI to make processes more efficient. “As AI moves from a “nice to have” to a “must have,” companies and their leaders should build a vision and strategy to leverage AI, then put in place the building blocks needed to scale its use. These include the right IT infrastructure, the right talent and skill sets, and creating ecosystems and alliances to access or build AI capabilities”, points out Wendell Miranda, Senior Analyst, Deloitte, Mumbai. It is evident that these new age technologies will gradually become the prerequisite for all enterprises. The future will require the industry to act in real-time. This means that companies have to evolve rapidly and leverage emerging technological capabilities to reach that stage. For instance, cybersecurity is already witnessing a high demand as the industry has switched to work-from-home mode and conducting virtual clinical trials. Network and operations must be secured to prevent any data breach making cybersecurity an important mandate. On this note, Tanaz Buhariwalla, India Director, IDA Ireland, Mumbai says, “Technologies that continue to be in focus and will remain so through 2021 include robotics, automation, machine learning and AI for preventive and predictive patient management to bring efficiencies in manufacturing. Supply chains will need to be transformed and automation will play a major role here. With the pharma and med device industry getting increasingly connected, the need of the hour is focused on cybersecurity and measures to prevent security breaches or in compromising the company’s systems.” Cloud is another frontier in the drive for digitization. Considering the amount of research and resources life sciences companies employ in bringing the products to the market, they certainly need a reliable and robust technological solution such as cloud on which they can depend on. Lastly, it is proven that telemedicine and telehealth are going to be the new normal. The ability to quickly connect with a doctor virtually is turning out be a new trend setter. Doctors are now prescribing medicines online that can be further brought from an online story or e-pharmacy. The market is changing rapidly and the pharma companies must find solutions to seize this moment. “Growth in the telehealth space will be sustained beyond the COVID-19 pandemic for the vendors who can deliver user-friendly sensors and remote diagnostic equipment, practical applications of AI and robotics, deployment of big data analytics that can help researchers learn more about the way COVID-19 progresses among diverse patient populations, and adherence to cybersecurity and privacy regulations that avoid data breaches following the use of telehealth services”, shares Victor Camlek, Healthcare Principal Analyst, Frost & Sullivan, US. The present situation is expected to lead to a new hybrid model of healthcare in which primary care will be given virtually while hospitals will become a point of emergency care. Nevertheless, digital and analytical tools will see greater adoption in the near future. And so the industry needs to be prepared to counter similar challenges that might unfold in the coming years. It also requires the industry to embrace a glocal approach by bracing the local talent and deliver global standards. As we step into 2021, BioSpectrum brings to you the elaborate plans of the industry players that will help them to adopt the new trends, stay more resilient in the long run and embrace the glocal approach to go forward.   ------------   Dr Manbeena Chawla (manbeena.chawla@mmactiv.com)   (with inputs from Prabhat Prakash, Pooja Yadav & Akshay Nayak) ]]> https://biospectrumindia.com/views/84/17848/we-expect-to-grow-by-50-per-cent-in-2021-shrey-agarwal.html https://biospectrumindia.com/views/84/17848/we-expect-to-grow-by-50-per-cent-in-2021-shrey-agarwal.html Mon, 28 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0530 “We expect to grow by 50 per cent in 2021” New Delhi based Abdos Labtech is a manufacturer of high quality lifesciences laboratory products. Established in 2009, the company has been prototyping, designing, developing and manufacturing high quality laboratory products for use in life sciences laboratories around the world. In addition to plastics, Abdos also markets large variety of bench top instruments and products for safety & utilities for use in the laboratory. The company has recently completed 10 years of its existence, following which BioSpectrum had a detailed interaction with Shrey Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Abdos Labtech, New Delhi. Edited excerpts- Congratulations to Abdos for completing 10 years. How has been the journey so far? We are very thankful to the life sciences community to make Abdos journey a great success in the last 10 years. With our 50 years of manufacturing background in different fields we ventured into the life sciences space. We started our manufacturing unit in Roorkee with our corporate office in New Delhi. Starting with few products and now we have close to 1800 products. Abdos lifesciences was started with a sense of purpose for “Creating Products and Services for Lifesciences” but that has expanded to “Ensuring, Empowering Health & Hygiene for People” in the recent past. We were supplying in few cities in India and now we have customer coverage in over 65 countries together with our logistics subsidiary in Europe based out of Netherlands. From few machines to South East Asia’ s largest cleanroom facility for plastic laboratory products; from a few people to about 250 people now in our company. The journey has been very interesting and full of events but overall quite satisfied with where we are in 10 years. What were the key highlights at Abdos Labtech in 2020? We began 2020 with key success stories in the international business with agreements in South Korea and Japan. Then the pandemic hit India in March and everything changed as the lockdown started and the need for testing Covid-19!!!.  During the pandemic in 2020 no team member of Abdos were laid off or fired. We supported our team in the pandemic, additionally we hired over 65 more team members in our company. We did a lot of CSR activities in terms of distribution of PPE kits to medical centres and hospitals, distributing food packets and contributing large sums in the PMCARE fund.  We expanded our market share in diagnostics and healthcare space. We also won some WHO (World Health Organization) contracts for few of our products and services. We built more than 100 million Filter Tips for COVID-19 testing. We supported leading kit manufacturers in their R&D, kit manufacturing and VTM Kits. We increased our marketing reach via digital platforms through our Mobile App, Website and Virtual meetings with customers, suppliers and other stakeholders. I urge everyone in the scientific community to download our fully featured Mobile App which is informative, creative and fun filled.  Abdos fully recognizes the vision of our honourable Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi in “Make in INDIA” & “Atmanirbhar Bharat”. Abdos lifesciences and Abdos group strives in that direction with 7 world class manufacturing facility and employs over 2500 people. We do export in over 65 countries and bring foreign exchange revenues to India. We will also be among top 5 Indian manufacturers in the plastic life sciences space, contributing richly in reducing the dependency on imported goods in making India self-reliant and Atmanirbhar. Did the company launch any new products this year? If yes, what was the R&D expenditure? We launched 25 new products with three new product lines. Some of the key products we added are Trace Metal Free (TMF) Centrifuge Tubes, Screw Cap tubes, Biofiltration products, and new range of Biopharma related lab consumables. Due to the huge demand for RT PCR tests we launched PCR workstations also. All of the new products saw tremendous response from our consumers both in India and globally. We invested $7 million USD in our expansion at the end of 2019. The demand kept on increasing and thus we invested $5 million USD again in Q2 2020 to keep up with the required demand to serve our customers. How much revenue was generated during the FY19-20? How much growth is expected in FY20-21? In the year 2019-20 we were doing relatively well and we were hoping to close the year with a growth of 25 percent, unfortunately covid-19 hit us and India went into a lockdown in the last 15 days of March so we could grow by only 15 percent. In 2020-21 due to the need of testing, research, vaccine and diagnostic kit manufacturing the demand of our products has hit record peaks and therefore we expect to grow by 50 percent in 2020-21. What are the major plans in store for 2021? If the demand continues in the same fashion, we again continue to expand our manufacturing capabilities in year 2021. We are adding major manufacturing lines in the liquid handling products. In 2021 we will launch about 10 new product lines in Cryo Techniques, Storage Techniques and Bio Pharma range to cope up with the demand for vaccine manufacturing globally. I believe that in the second half of 2021 we could see the case count of Covid-19 ease and the need for testing could reduce slightly. We expect to grow every year by 25 percent in the Indian market and 40 percent in the international market in the next 3-5 years which we expect through our routine business in Academic, Pharmaceutical, Health and Applied. How has been your service during the ongoing pandemic situation? I am very glad to say that, even in this pandemic situation where there is major disruption in supply chain our commercial and logistics team have done a phenomenal job and ensured that 85 per cent of our orders have been dispatched within 3-5 days. In our international sales, 90 per cent of our goods have left within the standards delivery and lead times as per customer’s commitment. We continue to work with our operations team to keep improving our customer service and happiness. What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the bio supplier industry? COVID-19 has changed the landscape of the world and affected families, businesses, and the way of our lives. We at Abdos are genuinely inspired by the selfless healthcare workers around the world who have been the front liners and worked tirelessly to care for the people in need. Life sciences and the biotech industry have been the frontline industry providing necessary products and services to fight this pandemic. The bio supplier industry is helping to fight Covid-19 with necessary consumables, equipment’s, reagents, vaccine manufacturing consumables and necessary consumables for making molecular diagnostic kits. I believe most companies in bio supplying industry should have grown in high double digits keeping in mind the present market demands.  During this time all manufacturers have increased capacity and new manufacturers have entered in the Biosupply space which will result in demand supply gap in the market in the post Covid-19 situation. I expect the BioSupplier Industry will go through a lot of transformation post Covid also. -------------- ]]> https://biospectrumindia.com/views/84/17849/vaccine-a-cure-or-leap-of-faith.html https://biospectrumindia.com/views/84/17849/vaccine-a-cure-or-leap-of-faith.html Mon, 28 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0530 The world has waited with bated breath for the cure of COVID-19, and finally we are on the brink of a major breakthrough not only in terms of a vaccine but also the advancements that we have seen in the last one year when it comes to how the future is going to be going forward. COVID-19 not only scarred the year 2020, but it has left a lasting impression on every individual for years to come. Everything else took a backseat as COVID-19 ravaged through nations. The pharma and healthcare fraternity were baffled with what SARS-CoV-2 was capable of doing. Initial treatments were just experimental drugs that were repurposed for the treatment of COVID-19 infections as they showed promising results. Scientists and researchers spent sleepless nights trying to understand the virus to combat it.Currently as per the World Health Organisation (WHO) there are 52 vaccine candidates (as on December 10, 2020) that are in different phases of clinical trial and another 162 candidate vaccines in preclinical evaluation. India has five vaccine candidates in advanced phases of human clinical trials. COVAXIN, being developed by Hyderabad based Bharat Biotech in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), COVISHIELD developed by Pune based Serum Institute of India, ZyCoV-D developed by Ahmedabad based Zydus and Hyderabad firm Biological E’s novel Covid-19 vaccine, and Russia’s Sputinik V in association with Dr. Reddy’s Labs.  --------- Dr Sanjiv Kumar, Chair,Indian Academy of Public by Health, Delhi and Gurugram based Indian Alliance of Patients Group; Former Senior Advisor, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Delhi is of the opinion that vaccines for COVID-19 have been developed at an unprecedented pace. “COVID-19 vaccines are available in less than a year whereas earlier it took about ten years. Regulatory authorities including WHO and ICMR have repeatedly emphasised that there is no compromise on safety standards. Though all measures to ensure safety have been taken in fast tracking COVID-19 vaccine development”, he says. The UK has gone ahead and approved Pfizer’s vaccine for emergency use authorisation (EUA) having an efficacy of 95 per cent. It has also been approved in the US, Singapore and Canada. Russia’s Sputnik V, the first vaccine that was registered with the WHO for the treatment of COVID-19 as well has an efficacy of 91.4 per cent. The frontrunners to the COVID-19 vaccine have been in different phases of trial and will be awaiting approvals once the data is submitted.   ---------------Dr Ambarish Dutta, Additional Professor – Epidemiology, Indian Institute of Public Health (an institution of Public Health Foundation of India), Bhubaneswar, says, “The efficacy of the vaccine is likely to change with data emerging from longer follow-up periods (though unrelated with mass inoculation as it does not depend how many people get. The herd immunity depends on that and not vaccine efficacy). That will determine whether repeat shots will be needed or not.” The cure to pandemics of the past has mostly been herd immunity or a vaccine. The world was put on notice and we had a herculean task at hand, to find an effective cure to save mankind from a virus that just jumped from animal to humans. According to David Wallace- Wells, Journalist, Author, The Uninhabitable Earth, Moderna’s mRNA-1273 vaccine was ready by January 13, 2020 just two days after the genetic sequence had been made public. Yet that wasn’t all. The vaccine still had to undergo trials to determine the efficacy of the vaccine, once the trials were over, the vaccine would have to be approved, commercialisation, availability, supply chain to the masses were some massive challenges.   ---------------Dr Debkishore Gupta, Consultant Clinical Microbiology, Infectious Disease and Head of Infection Control, CK Birla Hospitals, Kolkata mentions, “As per the normal norms, usually above 60 per cent efficacy is enough but with recent data most of the vaccines are reaching up to 90 per cent, which we did not expect in the beginning and seems to be encouraging.”The trials that have been conducted is nothing short of a miracle as per today’s standards. To develop and perfect a vaccine usually would take about ten years. Yet today we have 52 vaccine candidates that will be approved in the coming days depending on the data from the trials and their efficacies.   ----------Dr Anup R Warrier, Senior Consultant Infection Control, Aster Medcity, Kochi opines, “The trials have limitations in the time required to identify long term efficacy. But both antibodies production and infections in the three months post vaccination are markers to show short term protection. Similarly, long term safety data will emerge only over time.” We may or may not have a perfect vaccine for the COVID-19, but the world is better prepared than ever to deal with pandemics in the future. COVID-19 has been a wake- up call for major investments in R&D and a better healthcare infrastructure striving towards UHC. The long term implications of the vaccine are yet to be determined. This is mainly due to the short time frame that vaccine developers have had to test the vaccines in the long run.   Talking on this Dr Bharesh Dedhia, Consultant, Critical Care, Hinduja Hospital, Khar, Mumbai says “Long term impact of vaccines will only be available retrospectively, after a few years. But there is no question that preventing COVID-19 through vaccines is far safer than allowing natural immunity by getting infected.” In the coming days as more trials are completed and approvals granted by authorities, the number of COVID-19 vaccines will see an upsurge. Depending on the country and also the availability, people are going to get vaccinated eventually. In the following months, there will likely be a steep decline in the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths.   -------------Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland says, “We hope the vaccine will prevent infection so that transmission is cut as well, but as of now we don’t have the evidence to prove that. So it’s really important that everyone who gets the vaccine continues to take precautions.” Currently the challenge is to complete the clinical trials with stringent measures following all protocols, then making it available to the masses for inoculation. Experts have shown confidence in the vaccines based on the data of clinical trials conducted. The data has been promising, volunteers developed antibodies once they were vaccinated with major side effects or reactions. The other challenge that still needs to be addressed is how long will the antibodies remain in the body after vaccination. Currently there isn’t enough data on how long the antibodies last. Most vaccines will be available in two doses for maximum efficacy.   Prabhat Prakashprabhat.prakash@mmactiv.com ]]> https://biospectrumindia.com/views/84/17850/reviving-api-sector-and-investing-in-new-solutions.html https://biospectrumindia.com/views/84/17850/reviving-api-sector-and-investing-in-new-solutions.html Mon, 28 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0530 The pharma industry is being pushed to access the benefits of digital technology including artificial intelligence & big data analytics to support the virtual world, rejuvenating the telemedicine platforms, reviving the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) sector and investing in new solutions to drive differentiation in an increasingly competitive market. BioSpectrum brings to you plans of the leading pharma/biopharma players for 2021. “Launching new generic formulations in the US” Looking ahead, we expect the generic formulations business to continue to drive growth, based on new launches in the US for products, which are currently under regulatory review. We also plan to commercialise Remdesivir in India as part of our commitment towards providing treatment for COVID-19. We have submitted drug master files for three APIs in the US and seven APIs in other markets. We also received licenses from MHRA, UK, to import and distribute products there. This is in line with our plans to commercialise our formulations directly in the UK. The construction of a greenfield facility in Visakhapatnam   for immunosuppressant APIs has been slightly impacted due to delays by our vendors on account of COVID-19. We expect this facility to be commissioned by CY 2022.  Siddharth Mittal, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, Biocon, Bengaluru ------------   “Saving countless lives with COVISHIELD vaccine” As promised, before the end of 2020, we have applied for emergency use authorisation for the first made-in-India vaccine, COVISHIELD. This will save countless lives. COVISHIELD is by far the most advanced vaccine in human testing in India. We have already manufactured 40 million doses of the vaccine, under the at-risk manufacturing and stockpiling license from Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). Adar Poonawalla, Chief Executive Officer, Serum Institute of India, Pune -------------   “Rolling out 2 dose schedule for COVAXIN” The Phase III human clinical trials of COVAXIN began in November, involving 26,000 volunteers across India. This is India’s first and only Phase III efficacy study for a COVID-19 vaccine, and the largest Phase III efficacy trial ever conducted for any vaccine in India. COVAXIN trials are based on a 2-dose schedule, given 28 days apart. The vaccine efficacy will be determined two weeks after the second dose. We should look at the COVID-19 vaccine distribution as a global public policy. There should be a logistical strategy wherein there is also less impact on our environment.   Dr Krishna Ella, Chairman & Managing Director, Bharat Biotech, Hyderabad ---------   “Continuing digital trend” In 2021 we expect continuation of the digital trend that started in 2020 to further develop and become a constant in the healthcare space. Face to Face and digital interactions will coexist and our commitment is to ensure that integrity remains one of our foundational behaviours. Luca Visini, Managing Director, Eli Lilly and Company India, Gurugram -----------   “Working with USFDA to for clinical trials of PegiHep” We are encouraged by the results of Phase II study of Pegylated Interferon alpha 2-b (PegiHep), which has shown the potential to reduce virus titres when given earlier in the COVID-19 disease. We have now commenced the Phase III trials that will be conducted on 250 patients across 20-25 centres in India. We are working with the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to open an Investigational New Drug (IND) application for PegiHep in order to initiate appropriate clinical trials in US. In addition, we will be conducting Phase I trial on ZYIL 1, a small molecule new chemical entity (NCE) positioned for management of critically ill COVID-19 patients. Also, the Phase II clinical trials of Desidustat in the management of COVID-19 is underway at Mexico. Dr Sharvil Patel, Managing Director, Cadila Healthcare, Ahmedabad -----------   “Expecting to sustain momentum” We are very pleased with the strong recovery of our business in 2020, demonstrated by sequential growth across all our geographies, in particular US and India.  This marks the start of monetization of our complex generic pipeline with the launch of Etanercept biosimilar in Europe and generic Albuterol in the US. We expect to sustain the momentum on margin improvement led by optimization efforts underway and robust growth in our key businesses. Nilesh Gupta, Managing Director, Lupin, Mumbai ----------- “Increasing capacity for vaccine supply” With an investment of Rs 75 crore in the upcoming facility in Genome Valley, we expect to increase our capacity to supply additional quantities of high-quality and safe vaccines. The new facility will be specially designed as a multi-product facility and to cater to the need for viral vaccines in the pipeline that includes dengue, zika and varicella. We have also recently inaugurated a new sterile filling facility that was commissioned last year at an additional investment of Rs 75 crore. This facility will increase our capacity to supply lifesaving vaccines such as the anti-rabies vaccine (ARV) – Abhayrab. As a part of the expansion plan, we will add over 150 new positions, bringing the total staff strength close to 1,500. The new facility will boost the production capacity by over 35 per cent and increase the supply capacity to key markets where rabies vaccine is critically needed. The new plant is expected to be ready for operation by October 2021. Dr K Anand Kumar, Managing Director, Indian Immunologicals, Hyderabad -------------   “Aiming to access SGLT2 inhibitors market of diabetes” Diabetes is a key area of focus for Micro Labs and with the recent launch of the anti-diabetic drug combo Dapagliflozin plus Metformin tablets under the brand name ZUCAPRIDE- M, we aim to access the Rs 1000 crore SGLT2 inhibitors market, by providing an effective, high quality and world-class treatment option to patients in India. Besides, strong R&D efforts have helped us develop our own API, which is at par with the innovator brand.  Ashok Jain, Executive Director, Micro Labs, Mumbai ------------ “Offering potential option for prophylaxis of COVID-19” We have initiated a Phase I/II clinical trial of the COVID-19 subunit vaccine candidate in India following approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI). The results of this clinical trial are expected to be available by February 2021. We are very happy indeed to transition our potential vaccine candidate to clinical trials and offer one more potential option for the prophylaxis of COVID-19. Mahima Datla, Managing Director, Biological E, Hyderabad ----------   “Making Sputnik V available with import and indigenous production model” Our research teams are working on several potential remedies for COVID-19 in addition to the already launched products. We have seen a year-on-year growth of 21 per cent and sequential growth of 46 per cent, which is primarily on account of revenues from the acquired business of Wockhardt and contribution from new products including the Avigan (Favipiravir) and Remdesivir launched for treatment of COVID-19. We have further strengthened our development pipeline for COVID-19 treatment drugs including the vaccine candidate Sputnik V. We are working towards making the vaccine available with a combination of import and indigenous production model. GV Prasad, Co-chairman & Managing Director, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Hyderabad --------------   “Seeding multiple products across various regions” Glenmark Life sciences has successfully developed the API for Favipiravir (FabiFlu) for the treatment of COVID-19 in India. We continue to look at opportunities with various partners and has been seeding multiple products across various regions. During 2020, we have submitted one drug master file (DMF) in Japan, four in the rest of the world (ROW) markets and two in gulf cooperation council (GCC) markets. The company is looking to file at least 12 -15 DMFs in 2021. Glenn Saldanha, Director, Glenmark Life Sciences, Mumbai ------------- “Launching vaccine against Lumpy Skin Disease in cattle” We expect to grow in the market by expanding our reach, improving our product performances and adding new products and offering new solutions in our portfolio. In line with global health practices to move away from antibiotics, we will focus on herbal products. Most new products would be natural or herbal in nature for our poultry as well as animal division. Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) in cattle is an emerging disease in India, which is of economic importance for cattle farmers. We are currently working towards developing a vaccine against LSD. We have already received the test license for evaluation of safety & efficacy of the vaccine. We have plans to commercially launch the vaccine in 2021. Also, our developmental activities are ongoing for the human COVID-19 vaccine with Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati. Discussions are on with various human vaccines manufacturing companies to take the vaccine development and trial activities further.  Rajiv Gandhi, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, Hester Biosciences, Ahmedabad -----------   “Collaborating with government to contain AMR” Globally, we have been working with partners and suppliers across the value chain, to improve antimicrobial resistance (AMR) awareness and raise standards through policies. In this context, we have set an internal target of meeting the science-based targets for antibiotic discharges in effluents, also defined as predicted no effect concentrations (PNEC), for all our own wastewater streams, as well as those at our supplier sites, by 2021. We are well on track having already met the PNEC targets for Centrient’s largest Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) product range of semi-synthetic Penicillins. In line with that, in India, we will keep collaborating with central and state governments as well as other stakeholders in the ecosystem to support their initiatives in the containment of AMR and ensuring that during the current pandemic, antibiotics continue to save lives. Rex Clements, Chief Executive Officer, Centrient Pharmaceuticals, The Netherlands ----------   “Working on various digital transformation initiatives” With its rapidly evolving healthcare system, India remains a core market for Takeda. We are keen to offer innovative therapies, especially within rare diseases, oncology and vaccines, to serve critical unmet medical needs. We are also looking at expanding our current immunology and hematology businesses and continue to build on our launch pipeline. As digital has been the new normal, Takeda is working on various digital transformation initiatives both internally and externally to bring added value to our employees and partners.  Koki Sato, Country Head & General Manager, Takeda India, Gurugram ------------ “Rolling out digital solutions” AstraZeneca will continue to prioritise investments in its focus areas in-line with its global growth platforms. To detail out further: innovating with partners and piloting new ideas at scale and rolling out digital solutions to benefit large numbers of patients. We will also focus on improving the Healthcare Professionals (HCPs) experience, orchestrating across both digital and F2F; continue to work on the ecosystem around the HCP with virtual care clinics, e-pharmacy support and importantly the patient education initiatives (Tele-Educators); develop end-to end supplies of our oncology products and strengthening the patient support services with supplies to paramedics on home-day care for essential oncology products; continue to leverage technology and accelerate innovative science by educating and empowering HCPs and connecting with national and international experts through virtual continued medical education meetings/conferences/workshops. Similarly, for patient’s as well as educated and empowered patient’s will play an important role in shaping healthcare policies and treatment protocols to improve health outcomes for community. Product or new indication launches from conventional ways have gone into virtual platforms and have been quite successful in reaching out effectively. Gagandeep Singh, Managing Director, AstraZeneca Pharma India, Bengaluru ----------   “Investing more in research work” As we step into the new normal, organizations like ours have shed age-old monitoring mechanisms and brought in work ethics, accountability, and responsiveness and introduced more innovative employee engagement practices. Our early success with the equine antibodies' project has given us confidence that we must invest more in research work. BSV has also been conducting Phase III trials on Ulinastatin. More recently, global research teams have shared their belief in Ulinastatin potentially preventing the cytokine storm that causes death in COVID-19 patients. These developments reinforce my faith in the calibre of our scientists. I’m certain that most other players in healthcare have had similar experiences. India is blessed to have a brilliant team of scientists and technocrats and if our government continues to provide more grants to nurture R&D culture, our country could be a burgeoning research hub over the next year or two.  Sanjiv Navangul, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Bharat Serums and Vaccines, Mumbai ---------------- “Building on digital innovation” The digital medium has played a very important role, which was an underutilized asset prior to COVID-19.  We moved to digital interaction out of necessity and we have realized our stakeholders are more welcoming and available to interact via digital.  Leveraging this opportunity, we have launched several digital platforms to interact with our customers and employees and sharing content, which is meaningful and engaging. The key focus for 2021 is to ensure a strong business recovery post COVID and continue to build on the digital innovation to drive our marketing initiatives and customer interaction.  We have learnt a lot during COVID and we can continue to imbibe the good practices, which have evolved in the area of employee engagement and empathy to drive organisational culture.  Suresh Pattathil, Managing Director, Allergan India, Bengaluru -----------   "Adhering to main strengths" We are watching and researching the pattern of the disease ever since it broke out in China. Our research team has also begun to focus on potential avenues for treating Covid-19. The time available is, of course, short since no one has the time to perform the phase through studies. It is too early for everyone to suggest they have discovered a cure. Existing drugs like remdesivir have played an important role in the early treatment and reduction of viral therapy before vaccinations have reached the market. Asymptomatic and moderate patients were also helped with an early remedy by a product such as favipiravir. I feel by 2021 it is time for Indian companies to understand that they need to master what they are good at instead of being a jack of all. I will still say that adhering to the main strengths would significantly help the pharmaceutical industry and might see a new horizon. Dharmesh Shah, Chairman & Managing Director, BDR Pharma, Mumbai -------------   “Launching transformative therapy options” At Roche, we were going through an organization transformation when the pandemic hit. It was a massive disruption to our 2020 plans. However, the team responded with agility and purpose to emerge better and stronger. In 2021, we will focus on implementing our transformation agenda, sharpening the execution engine with a strong focus on our strategic initiatives. There are multiple new launches lined up which will make transformative therapy options available for people in India. We will also forge strong partnerships aimed at ecosystem shaping access initiatives.  V Simpson Emmanuel, Managing Director, Roche Products India, Mumbai -----------   “Housing data scientists to support drug discovery” As a company, we have accelerated our use of digital solutions and platforms during the pandemic. We now use digital media more extensively than before for customer engagement and multiple other processes. We plan to build on the progress made in 2020 on several fronts. We already have a good presence in India through our three global R&D support groups in Bengaluru, and have just announced the opening of a global capability centre in Bengaluru. This centre will house data scientists and analysts, who will support our drug discovery efforts. Sridhar Venkatesh, Managing Director, GSK Pharmaceuticals, Mumbai -------------------------------- ]]> https://biospectrumindia.com/features/84/17851/shifting-to-a-new-era-of-technology-based-work.html https://biospectrumindia.com/features/84/17851/shifting-to-a-new-era-of-technology-based-work.html Mon, 28 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0530 “Creating a skilled force in biomanufacturing”   Being the preferred partners in biomanufacturing, we are committed to invest and support in a big way to nurture the emerging biotech sector with the best of our ability. We will continue to invest in tools and technologies globally that will accelerate and advance therapeutics in biologics, vaccines, plasma, cell and gene therapy. The collaborations that are lined up with the top academic labs and centre for excellence in India will be a game changer in meeting the vision of creating a skilled force in the niche areas of biomanufacturing, drug discovery and automation. We will explore to collaborate with our local partners to meet the new policy frame work designed by the government.   Vaggu Raghavendra Goud, General Manager, Cytiva South Asia, Hyderabad   ----------- “Hoping to continue on same growth trajectory”   We hope to continue on the same growth trajectory in the next year and use all that we have learnt during the pandemic to address our customers’ needs better. The COVID-19 pandemic has been an accelerator of change for building a stronger and more resilient healthcare ecosystem. It has strengthened the value proposition and importance of having an agile and innovative life sciences industry. As we prepare to transition to stability, the world will pivot in many ways through shifts in behaviour and preferences, and adoption of technology. We will continue to stay close to our customers, employees, suppliers and partners to understand their needs and continue to deliver on all fronts.    Amit Mookim, Managing Director, IQVIA India, Mumbai   ---------   “Opening new facilities”   We are in the midst of an organization wide transformative initiative Sai Nxt. Guided by the insights and feedback from our customers, we are investing upwards of $150 million to top-grade every aspect of our organization. We have already added 172 KL API & intermediate manufacturing capacity, expanded our geographic footprint with R&D facilities in Boston and Manchester, and opened a new 83,000 sq. ft. integrated research & technology center in Hyderabad.  In 2021, we continue this journey of transformation with Sai Nxt adding new facilities, enhancing operational excellence, and expanding customer outreach. The new facilities scheduled to open this year include high potent R&D and manufacturing capability, clean room block and 200KL additional manufacturing capacity. In recent months, we have expanded our customer outreach in newer markets and will further strengthen it in the coming months. Our investments in hard infrastructure are being backed with substantial investments in people development, automation, data systems, process improvements and shop-floor transformation.    Krishna Kanumuri, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, Sai Life Sciences, Hyderabad   -----------   “Making our solutions more technology-intensive”   Excelra’s business goal remains transforming life science data into actionable insights for our clients. Our offerings run through ‘from molecule to market’ essentially catering to the entire pharma R&D value chain all the way up to commercialization. Our short term goals include focusing on the new growth areas such as value evidence and tech solutions; evolving new business models by increasing revenue contribution from product or platform subscriptions and investing in making our solutions more technology-intensive and value-accretive; establishing US operations; and developing deeper relationships with our key clients.   Anandbir Singh Brar, Chief Executive Officer, Excelra, Hyderabad   ----------   “Using real word data to accelerate innovation”   2021 will be the year of opportunities. Our world, pivoting in response to the pandemic, has demonstrated great resilience and has shifted quickly to work in new and different ways to accelerate new therapies. Moving forward with a patients-first approach, it will become imperative to design studies keeping in mind patients’ convenience and safety. Decentralized trials and improving capabilities in cell and gene therapy research will be instrumental in creating state-of-the-art infrastructure to conduct clinical trials. Parexel is at the forefront of using real world data (RWD) and real world evidence (RWE) to accelerate innovation and improve efficiency in the new global regulatory environment.   Sanjay Vyas, Senior Vice President, India Country Head & Managing Director, Parexel, Bengaluru   ------------   “Building expertise in advanced technologies”   Syngene today is actively engaged in supplying reagents and proteins for use in diagnostic kits. We are also working with partners on advanced therapy programmes such as neutralizing antibodies and developing models for use as innovative research tools.  Our Ace2 receptor model and pseudovirion based assays are all outcomes of the COVID-19 related needs and opportunities. As for next year, it will depend on the speed and effectiveness of the vaccine deployment programmes that different countries are taking up.  This will in turn play an important role in the subsequent waves of COVID-19 and the ability to return to normalcy.  Regardless, the 100 per cent employee testing programme introduced in 2020 will help ensure Syngene operates with minimum disruption.  We will continue to build on our expertise in advanced technologies such as sophisticated immuno-oncology assays, integrated drug discovery and CAR-T design for research of next generation therapies as well as build on our capacities to serve the growing requirements of our clients.   Dr Mahesh Bhalgat, Chief Operating Officer, Syngene International, Hyderabad   ------------   “Implementing automation initiatives”   We will create new alliances in niche areas. We are currently assessing options and are in talks with some companies. We will continue with implementation of automation initiatives with the aim of bringing them to market in the coming year. We will bring internal efficiencies to the way current processes are being handled, with the eventual benefit received by our clients, project optimize is what we call it. While growing the SIRO family, we would strive to continue building a culturally strong and happy organization.   Akshay Daftary, Director of Business Development, SIRO Clinpharm, Mumbai   ------------- “Offering more contract manufacturing services”   Tex Biosciences is actively leveraging on its manufacturing capabilities and offering more contract manufacturing services of biotech products to principal companies. In this regard, we have been able to add new clients to our list and expand the range of products we now manufacture. Apart from contract manufacturing, we have been able to expand into new geographical areas through exports of products in leather, animal feed, water treatment, paper, textiles and detergents.   Aravindha Prakash Krishnamachari, Director, Tex Biosciences, Chennai   -------------   “Expecting 300 per cent growth”   In 2020, we have expanded our portfolio to many more industries. Also, we have added new territories for our operations. Now, we're working with more 25 countries globally. Recently in light of the coronavirus, we have developed a specialised enzymes based multipurpose disinfectant which has been put into focus a lot. This product has found great acceptance and utility. Even in these COVID times, we expect a 300 per cent growth this year. Our diversification strategy in terms of geographies and industries has helped us achieve this.    Adarsh Desai, Managing Director, Infinita Biotech, Vadodara   -------------- “Focusing on technology enablement”   The CRO Industry is at an inflection point as COVID-19 has changed clinical trials forever with technology-enabled services being in the forefront as the new normal. We are witnessing the beginning of a restructuring of the clinical trial landscape. Returning to the traditional models will not be possible, even in the post-COVID world. Our broad future plans include focus on technology enablement. This is achieved by integrating disparate systems usually used in clinical trial systems and which supports us in providing the real-time insights and also data-driven decisions, which are made for the studies. Through this we are fully driven in terms of executing the next-gen clinical trials. We also plan to make a shift in our approach towards clinical development. Key lessons learnt during the pandemic and the way we have executed the six COVID-19 studies have made us more adaptable and flexible in terms of study management. We will be future proofing with real time insights - driven optimization to inform sponsor team and executive management with real time status decisions and deliver quality outcomes. There will be greater implementation of patient engagement tools and remote monitoring.   Srinivasan H R, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, TAKE Solutions, Chennai   ---------   “Opening large animal facility for medical device testing”   Post COVID-19, the growth of the healthcare and preclinical contract research organizations (CRO) services market is expected to grow due to increase in number of clinical trials and increasing expenditure in R&D and outsourcing activities worldwide. 2021 is going to give a huge stimulus to CRO industry. The massive efforts to develop vaccines, new diagnostics, medical devices, repurpose existing anti-viral drugs and develop new drugs is the new hope and opportunities for Vipragen to explore. We have put a foot forward in the areas of medical devices, analytical chemistry, Inhalation toxicology, in vitro toxicology and other areas of preclinical discovery and development which will take major shape in the coming year. We are coming up with a large animal/non rodent facility for safety and medical device testing. We as a CRO plan to be more agile, how to de-risk our R&D and show early successes.    Dr Chaitra Harsha, Managing Director, Vipragen Biosciences, Mysuru -------------------------------------- ]]> https://biospectrumindia.com/views/84/17852/innovating-new-offerings-for-the-industry.html https://biospectrumindia.com/views/84/17852/innovating-new-offerings-for-the-industry.html Mon, 28 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0530   “Addressing growing pharma concerns of new impurities”   As one of the leading partners for the life sciences industry, our focus remains on bio-therapeutics and helping the industry find solutions to combat well known and emerging diseases. As the Indian government increases focus on the sector, and India develops new technology parks, the life sciences industry is poised for good growth. Also, Agilent has recently launched certain unique technologies like the Vaya Raman system for contamination tracing, as its area of focus. Life sciences companies are facing the emergence of certain new impurities, such as nitrosamines. We have also established products and solutions to address these growing complexities by creating mass spectrometry systems and laying our focus on bio-pharmacy, and smart labs. Furthermore, the power of innovative analytical technologies, guided workflow and software libraries are helping our customers to analyze the entire product lifecycle and define the root cause of genotoxic impurities. Bharat Bhardwaj, Country General Manager – India, Agilent Technologies, New Delhi   --------------   “Awaiting to revive growth plans”   Before COVID-19 impacted, BD South Asia was on a growth path with several investments lined up. We had put them on hold to navigate through the crisis. We are eagerly awaiting to revive these plans and get back to a growth path.   Pavan Mocherla, Managing Director, BD India/South Asia, Gurugram   ------------ “Actively evaluating overall supply chain”   As a global provider of tools and equipment for the biopharmaceutical industry, we remain committed to providing the necessary research tools and reagents, diagnostic products, therapy manufacturing products and vaccine development products that aid the fight against this novel virus. Employee safety will remain a top priority. We will continue to support our customers in India working on COVID-19 projects and life-saving therapies. Our 59 manufacturing sites and more than 100 distribution centres around the world remain operational to serve our customers in these difficult times. Our global task force is mobilized to actively evaluate the overall supply chain of both our products and key raw materials to mitigate any potential disruption. Leveraging business continuity plans, we remain dedicated to serving our customers and sharing our expertise through skill development in high-end technology to aid in scientific response to future disease situations in the country.    Sunil Punjabi, Country Speaker and Head of Research Solutions, Merck India, Bengaluru   ------------   “Developing omni channels and tools”   The pandemic has been a great burning platform to drive change. Digital transformation has been accelerated by at least 3-4 years. The fundamental ways that teams across the company work will change. I personally see that in online meetings, more opinions and views are heard, thanks to the chat functions as opposed to in person meetings where only one person’s opinions can be heard at a time, making these interactions richer and more democratic. A deeper understanding of the interconnectivity of the products and processes will be developed, with a focus on delivery, supply chain stability, business continuity planning from end-to-end. Companies will create and develop omni channels and tools as they seek to interact, communicate, train, support and sell to their customers.   Chetan Makam, Managing Director, Terumo Penpol, Thiruvananthapuram   ------------- “Churning out best molecular diagnostic solutions”   The clinical diagnostics sector has made a major leapfrog jump to molecular diagnostics during COVID-19 pandemic. We have invested in molecular biology R&D over the last 14 years. Post the pandemic, HiMedia started to focus on churning out the best molecular solutions from HiGenoMB for delivering on the opportunities in the diagnostic sector rather than on focusing on the areas like academics and research, which closed down during the pandemic. We have received a very prestigious grant of Rs 25 crore from the National Biopharma Mission to develop Chemically Defined Serum Free Media (CDSFM) to grow CHO/NS0 cells for production of monoclonal antibodies, which are the magic bullets for the treatment of cancers and many chronic diseases. Additionally our media for T-cell expansion for CAR-T cell therapy is also ready and this is very much needed for anti- cancer treatment using cutting edge cell based therapies. We plan to expand our horizons by reaching every country with sensitive, innovative and user- friendly molecular diagnostic solutions.   Dr Gangadhar M. Warke, Founder and CMD, HiMedia Laboratories, Mumbai   ------------   "Working to support cold storage needs for COVID-19 vaccines" The fight against COVID-19 pandemic will not end with the vaccine. Today’s pharmaceutical pipelines increasingly require a cold supply chain with end-to-end temperature management and strict conformance to regulatory guidelines. Having a better forecasting mechanism jointly between the private sectors and the government to look at end-to-end planning process and start feeding that into our global supply chain, would make it possible  to  address the dynamic needs of the country. Thermo Fisher Scientific has been designing and manufacturing cold storage solutions globally for more than 50 years. We recognized very early on that there would be an increase in the need for cold storage products and began increasing our production of our ultra-low storage freezers to manage demand and ensure availability. In India, we are working with several state medical councils to support their cold storage needs and the effective distribution & last mile storage of Covid-19 vaccines. With several vaccine candidates on the horizon and each with varying storage requirements, we are proud to be uniquely positioned to respond to the cold storage needs of the COVID-19 vaccines.   Amit Chopra, Managing Director, Thermo Fisher Scientific, India and South Asia, Mumbai   ------------- ]]> https://biospectrumindia.com/views/84/17853/there-is-an-urgent-need-to-elevate-the-patient-awareness-levels-regarding-diseases.html https://biospectrumindia.com/views/84/17853/there-is-an-urgent-need-to-elevate-the-patient-awareness-levels-regarding-diseases.html Mon, 28 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0530 The importance of strong supply chains in healthcare has become a top focus area. There needs to be increased investment towards technology and innovation along with a shift from reactive to proactive care. In addition to this, the Indian consumer is still ill-informed. There is an urgent need to elevate the awareness levels regarding diseases, their symptoms, possible diagnostic tests available and treatment options. BioSpectrum reaches out to leading healthcare players for their plans in 2021.   “Building multinational network” NephroPlus has recently acquired majority stake in Royal Care Dialysis Centers, Inc (RCDC) the Philippines. We are excited to add the team from RCDC to our network. Working together with this leadership team of RCDC, we are now aiming to become the largest dialysis network in the Philippines in next 5 years. We have already started talking to several dialysis centers in the Philippines to fuel our expansion plans. With this entry into the Philippines, we reiterate our commitment to build a dominant multinational network across Asia, Middle East and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) geographies. Vikram Vuppala, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, NephroPlus, Hyderabad -----------   “Adding more stores & retail outlets” With the new round of funding by the Allana Group and Adar Poonawalla, we plan to strengthen our private labels that have gained popularity over the years. We will continue to add more retail stores and reach out to our customers not just through brick and mortar outlets but also through online channels. From being a mere startup a decade ago, to clocking revenues of over Rs 1,000 crore for the current fiscal year, Wellness Forever has swiftly expanded its footprint to over 200 stores in Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka. The company aims to add over 150 more stores in the next year and 1000 retail outlets in the next three years. Gulshan Bakhtiani, Founder & Director, Wellness Forever Medicare, Mumbai ------------- “Restructuring business development team” We are aiming to deliver sustainable growth in 2021. This will entail restructuring and reconfiguring of the sales and marketing departments to make them more focused and productive. We are also aligning two separate field sales teams with national footprint – focused on hospitals/medical clients & on franchisee collection centres named as Thyrocare Service Providers. Restructuring the office based business development teams will ensure focus by priority channels. In 2021 we will also see COVID facility in National Capital Region (NCR) apart from Mumbai and will also have future plans in Bangalore and Kolkata to have presence in all regions. More processing facilities – Regional Processing Laboratories coming up basis careful planning of market demand, turnaround time (TAT) requirement and workload balancing. In 2021 we will also direct our efforts to focus on quality across our channel, beyond lab, renewed focus on communication, audit and training. With more focus on training of staff for better competence and efficiency, which will also help in upgrading the overall customer Service experience. Arindam Haldar, Chief Executive Officer, Thyrocare Technologies, Mumbai --------------   “Planning to open facilities in few African & West Asian countries” Our main focus will continue to be strengthening our centers of excellence in the fields of pathogen identification, proteomics, genomics, metabolomics, digital pathology and personalized medicine.  Presently, we are operating in India, United Arab Emirates, United States and South Africa. In India, we are looking to expand rapidly in the North and Western parts of the country with sizeable number of touch points.  Also, by next financial year, we have plans to open diagnostics facilities in Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, and Ghana by next financial year. In West Asia, we are looking to set up lab in Kuwait and a new facility in Abu Dhabi. To cater to the patient's new age demands, we plan to introduce IT infrastructure. The next year is dedicated to the people of Neuberg. Continuous learning and development programmes, reward and recognition programmes, etc. will be at the core of Neuberg’s mission this year. We want to strengthen our digital interaction platform and encourage people to start a conversation around various ailments and get expert advice from the doctors. Another campaign we will be promoting is the virtual “DOST (Diagnosticians Overseeing Specialized Treatment)”. Through this programme, we plan to raise awareness about the role of a diagnostician in chronic diseases management. Aishwarya Vasudevan, Group Chief Operating Officer, Neuberg Diagnostics, Mumbai --------------   “Strengthening our technology platforms” During this pandemic technology has provided us major support in all areas of work. Whether it is to connect with patients remotely during lockdown or managing in-patient beds, ventilators in acute care or helping us bring out studies, articles, case reports at lighting speed technology was indeed acted like a backbone. It helped us learn from each other and help patients across the globe. Getting back to normal life will be a major focus in 2021. Getting our staff vaccinated will be our top priority. We will further work on strengthening our technology platforms and our systems and processes so that we are more prepared than before to handle any such challenges that future holds in store for us. Dr Chandrika Kambam, Director, HCG Cancer Hospital, Bengaluru  ---------------   “Strengthening the IT infrastructure” We aim to coordinate with government agencies to administer the COVID-19 vaccine, giving priority to healthcare workers, the armed forces personnel, and the vulnerable population of our community. Despite the ongoing vaccination, we will try to ensure no slippages in safeguards to prevent the retransmission of COVID-19. We will also continue maintaining oversight on the supply chain, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) count, etc.; and be prepared for any possible eventuality of a new wave of COVID-19. Going forward we need to focus more on non-COVID-related medical procedures. We are also gearing up for the rebound in patient volumes once the flight connectivity resume with regard to medical value travel. With an aim to outreach and enlarge the integrated healthcare model, we are strengthening the IT infrastructure with a focus on homecare, teleconsultation, diagnostic services etc.   Dr Harish Pillai, Chief Executive Officer, Aster India, Aster DM Healthcare, Bengaluru ------------- “Making presence more robust using teletherapy” Undoubtedly, this pandemic has made people more aware and cautious about the mental health issues in all age groups. During the lockdown period, we reached out to 50,000 underprivileged families and provided uninterrupted and seamless support to their children with special needs. As we enter the year 2021, we strongly hope to resume our business as usual. We are also expecting that the vaccine would stabilize the COVID-19 situation. We will look forward to vaccinating our employees especially the frontline workers and further plan to open all our 100 centres across India with utmost care and precautions. Since we have successfully delivered our online training programmes during this pandemic, we also aim to make our presence more robust across India using teletherapy. We aim to expand the number of integrated centres from 100+ to at least 300+ while working alongside inclusive schools.  Nitin Bindlish, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Mom’s Belief, New Delhi -------------   “Bringing transformation with digital pathology” The ongoing crisis has reinstated the fact that the healthcare and diagnostics sector can reap out great profits for a country like India. Our country can very well be turned into the ‘Laboratory of the World’ with the government joining hands with the private sector. The area where we would bring in one of the biggest transformation in diagnostics space will be digital pathology. In the post COVID scenario we would like to explore possibilities where some of our pathologists, oncologists, and radiologists could work from home. This is where digital pathology would play a vital role. Our work with Microsoft will also pave way to this transformation. SRL has recently launched the second phase of AI solution development engagement with Microsoft, with the aim to effectively reduce the subjectivity to screening digital pathology slides, and link up to a Big Data system to find out references to similar cases reported in any part of the world. Besides, in 2021 we will continue to utilize our people and technological resources to withstand our leadership in the reference laboratory segment with a focus on next generation diagnostics.  Anand K., Chief Executive Officer, SRL Diagnostics, Gurugram ----------   “Looking forward to early effective vaccine” Technology has played an important role in the pandemic. Telemedicine/Teleconsultation made consultation easier for primary and secondary level care for both clinicians as well as patients during this pandemic. This also ensured contactless consultation between patients and their doctors. The latest buzz is now regarding the potential COVID-19 vaccine. India being the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world and having a well-oiled machinery for universal immunisation is better placed than any other country in the world, to deliver the vaccine to masses. The world, including us in India, is really looking forward to an effective early vaccine. Focusing on the road ahead in the year 2021, new innovations in the field of technology and more stringent government policies will be playing an important role in the development of the healthcare infrastructure and management in India.  Dr Sandeep Budhiraja, Group Medical Director, Max Healthcare, New Delhi -----------   “Resuming expansion plans” 2020 has been a tough year for the health care sector with COVID-19 pandemic flaring up many issues & challenges in the year. While hospital operations were hindered a lot by the COVID-19 pandemic, and people fearing to venture out even for emergencies, maintaining the follow up of critical cases was a choppy ride across the year. June 2020 onwards we saw a little light at the end of the tunnel with more and more patients being able to access corrective eye care and treatments. Every patient who walked in was treated with the utmost care and safety protocols. We stopped all our outreach programmes, which are mass vision check camps, to avoid risks of infection. We stalled all our expansion plans, which were conceived at the beginning of the year and rescheduled it to the year 2021. Dr GSK Velu, Chairman, MaxiVision Group of Eye hospitals, Hyderabad -----------   “Our products are reusable and washable upto 6 months” COVID-19 has been undoubtedly the most devastating public health emergency of recent times. The pandemic is far from over, and we must not forget the lessons it has taught us. Even if people are vaccinated, they can be silent spreaders of the virus. So, wearing masks and maintaining basic hygiene are still key preventive measures. We understand the environmental hazards caused by disposable masks, gloves, PPEs and other medical kits. Therefore, our products are reusable and washable upto 6 months, effectively replacing 210 single-use masks and gloves. India has already generated 18,006 tonnes of COVID-19 biomedical waste in the last four months. People must be responsible and should always use products that minimize environmental impact, while ensuring ultimate protection. Sanjeev Swamy, Inventor, Founder and CEO, Livinguard AG, Switzerland -------------   “Planning to launch at least 2 more satellite labs” In an effort to reduce turnaround times for tests related to pregnancy health checks including COVID-19 testing, we announced the launch of our brand new modern diagnostic laboratory in Bengaluru dedicated to the complete protection of mother and child. As an exclusive lab for mother & child, this new facility will also offer tests for assessment of pregnancy health inviting genetics testing and RT-PCR testing apart from other routine diagnostic tests. It is our paramount commitment to set up pan-India satellite labs to become more accessible to our customers and offer them exceptional services in such unprecedented times. We further plan to launch at least two more satellite labs in the next six months.” Mayur Abhaya, Managing Director, LifeCell, Chennai ------------   "Procure enough stock of vaccines at the earliest" As the new year of 2021 is coming with hope of New Life, still the challenges are many. There is a wide speculation of emerging Second Wave with a new strain of Corona Virus. It is supposed to spread faster in Community, affect younger children with some new symptoms and signs. We must not take a relaxed step in the new year. We must be extra cautious and watchful to take all preventive measures and detect the disease in the early stages. Hospitals must take all steps to increase the Lab testing facility, separate Covid Patients from Non Covid Patients and gear up with extra infrastructure facilities particularly in the ICU. Adequate medicines and supportive equipment for the treatment should also be procured in advance. General public must be repeatedly educated to wear masks, maintain social distance and avoid going to crowded places. Also, to celebrate Festivals and Functions with limited number or people. The Government should take measures to procure enough stock of Vaccines at the earliest. Proper arrangements to store and deliver the Vaccines to people on priority basis. Finally, we should all remember that Corona Virus is still around us. If we take all necessary precautions, we can prevent from getting it and help in remaining safe. Dr Dinesh V Kamath, Consultant- Internal Medicine, Manipal Hospitals, Malleswaram, Bengaluru ------------   "E-pharmacy remains a vital cog" The need for a future ready digital health system has become even more urgent with the COVID-19 Pandemic. ePharmacy provides a building block for such digital health ecosystem to ensure efficient and affordable universal health coverage. As amply evidenced by the performance of e-pharmacies in India, there is a tremendous potential and scope of growth for the sector in India. The retail pharmacy sector needs a lot of supply chain, technology and access solutions to make healthcare delivery more efficient and affordable, and a pre-requisite for this is a simple and clear regulatory pathway for innovation to thrive in this important space. A vibrant e-pharmacy remains a vital cog in the implementation of the National Digital Health Mission. Hence, access to healthcare, affordability of healthcare, quality and authenticity of healthcare, and awareness- all these have to be addressed through technology. Dr Varun Gupta, Convenor, Digital Health Platforms -------------   "Need to go back to basics" With regard to public health, COVID-19 has taught us how to manage a pandemic. It has reiterated the need to go back to basics such as implementing and adhering to infection control practices in hospitals, effective surveillance, preparedness and capacity building. SARS-CoV-2 is no longer as mysterious to us today as it was then. We now know enough about the virus so much so that the disease has become manageable. It has taught us few lessons both from the public health point of view as well as clinical for the treating doctor, although many of these lessons have been learnt the hard way at the cost of several lives lost. Dr KK Aggarwal, President, Confederation of Medical Associations in Asia and Oceania (CMAAO) and Medtalks, Heart Care Foundation of India ---------------   "We will see bigger impact of genomics in people's lives" The need for a seamless omni-channel process across the business for customer centricity at both the doctor and patient level. Some of these processes were refined in the year 2020 based on various considerations. This will only evolve and get enhanced over 2021. With higher visibility for genomic tests we feel that patients and doctors will now be more open to looking at tests leveraging these techniques across various infectious diseases. Tests that would not only give you details of diagnosis and quantification but even drug resistance profiling to evaluate various treatment options possible. We feel with more awareness around genomics and its role we will be seeing a rise in making a bigger impact in people’s lives. Some efforts will also go on offering direct to consumer tests that would be interest to people at large. Shakun Gidwani, Director, Corporate Marketing and Strategy, MedGenome, Bengaluru -----------------    ]]> https://biospectrumindia.com/views/84/17854/strengthening-disease-monitoring-systems-with-technology.html https://biospectrumindia.com/views/84/17854/strengthening-disease-monitoring-systems-with-technology.html Mon, 28 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0530   “Looking to expand and adding new verticals” From an industry or consumer angle, the pandemic has made it very evident that customers are moving online faster than ever before. As a tech-first healthcare provider, DoctorC is at the forefront of this market transformation that's happening in the healthcare space. The pandemic has led to a rapid expansion of the company across verticals. Before the pandemic, we were a team of 150, today we are nearly 300. We are currently in 10 cities and are looking to expand to 20+ cities in 2021. We are also adding new verticals beyond diagnostics. Neehar Cheerabuddi, Chief Executive Officer, DoctorC, Hyderabad ------------ “Investing another $20M for expansion”   Owing to the unprecedented demand for our mobility & virtual healthcare services, we are investing another $20 million to add a 20 plus new services for our subscribers. This strategy will propel our growth in health tourism for international patients, urban crowds and more importantly provide underserved regions access to our exclusive services. Besides mobility services, we will roll-out home diagnostics, doctor, nurses and nutritionists’ consultation on call. Plans are underway to expand our Intelligent Monitoring Analysis Services Quarantine (iMASQ) services, offer no-cost ambulances for the needy, and subsidised services across healthcare in partnership with hospitals.   Dharma Teja Nukarapu, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Vera Smart Healthcare, Hyderabad   -----------   “Bringing diagnostics to a device on your palm”   We have made significant investments in R&D to develop innovative products to change the face of diagnostics in India and at globe. To start with, we plan to launch the v 2.0 of Compact XL - the molecular lab in a box concept. This version would integrate the PCR capabilities into the current model, further improve the design and a major facelift. This machine will allow small labs to set-up and conduct molecular tests without incurring a huge capital cost and save on the referral samples they outsource to bigger labs. Further, small blood banks will also be able to take benefit of this and do NAT testing in-house. We will also roll out the truly mobile molecular labs, which can travel to villages and small cities to test for various types of infections and diseases.  Further, we are planning to bring a complete range of new tests that would allow us to improve diagnostics for COVID as well as other infections. These tests will be more accurate that the current paradigm and will match the current costs. Finally, there are two important projects that are still in our labs, driven by cutting edge technologies, which have the potential to bring diagnostics to a device on your palm.    Hasmukh Rawal, Managing Director, Mylab Discovery Solutions, Pune   ----------   “Digital maturity and innovation at forefront”   2021 would be the year of renewal, digital maturity and innovation. It is an exciting time for our industry as well as for CORE Diagnostics. Innovation and the use of advanced technology would continue to be amongst the top trends in India as well as across the globe. There has been a visible shift of consumers from brick-and-mortal to digital services. We believe end-to-end doorstep delivery of diagnostic services will come up as a major trend. In terms of infrastructure, the smaller labs have limited financial capabilities for advanced equipment. Hence, organized players are expected to register higher growth along with consolidation and acquisition of smaller labs by established ones. The large scale public-private partnership, one of the significant developments in our industry this year, is also expected to continue and further grow in varying models in the year 2021.   Dinesh Chauhan, Chief Executive Officer, CORE Diagnostics, New Delhi   ------------   “Raising funds & expanding our footprints”   COVID-19 happened out of the blue, impacting almost every sector. For a player like us that deal in the digital arena, it worked to our advantage. Pharmaceutical brands had been very hesitant in adopting digital technologies, but the pandemic provided the required push for Rx drug marketers to look for digital avenues and adopt digital methods to stay relevant to Physicians not just at times like these, but also to optimize their business outcomes in the future as well. COVID-19 has made one thing crystal clear for the pharma sector that digital is here to stay, and any marketing strategy would be incomplete without it. In the year ahead, we are aiming at raising funds and expanding our footprints to South Asian and European markets, besides launching new features that bring effectiveness and efficiency in pharmaceutical marketing.   Dr Harshit Jain, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Doceree   ----------- “Deepening our diagnostic network”   The pandemic has proven that telemedicine is not only a tool for patients with non-critical emergencies, but can also be an effective tool to ensure continued care for patients afflicted by chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, etc. In 2021, we will be scaling up our presence across key cities in India, partnering with strategic hospitals that would enable high quality Outpatient Department (OPD) care to be accessible to an even greater number of patients. We plan to expand our doctor network as well as deepen our diagnostic network across the country. We would also be creating detailed continuous care programmes for several chronic conditions prevalent in India- such as diabetes, Polycystic Ovarian Disease (PCOD), thyroid, hypertension to name a few.   Prasad Kompalli, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, MFine, Bengaluru   --------------   “Expanding scope of our data science”   We plan to continue working on our AI so that it becomes even more efficient in decoding the health data and identifying illnesses and diseases faster. We also plan to extend our suite of services in the future to provide consumers with a holistic platform for all their healthcare needs. We are especially expanding the scope of our data science to ensure Dozee can accurately predict specific disorders, esp. in neurology, pulmonology and cardiology space.   On the hospital front, we are seeing good traction this year and we have partnered with over 30 hospitals already. We are planning to scale across the country and have our devices at many more wards. Currently in India, only one lakh beds are being continuously monitored and there are about 19 lakh beds, which are dependent on human intervention. We hope to bridge this gap in the coming years. We are also targeting Tier II cities as the doctor to patient ratio is extremely skewered here and having our device in such regions will ensure that hospitals run efficiently by automating the vitals monitoring process.   Mudit Dandwate, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, Dozee, Bengaluru   -----------   “Expanding into AI based digital capabilities”   SeekMed has gained significant traction in building itself as a credible global tele-medicine platform for professional and ethical medical advice. As we look at 2021, we'll continue to build on the momentum and focus on expanding our footprint on all fronts- establish SeekMed as the platform of choice for second opinion; expand geographic outreach outside India; expand into AI based digital capabilities for targeted patient education and tele-medicine offerings; grow our network of most admired super specialist doctors by 150 per cent and explore tie-ups to broaden our value-based offerings; and expand tie ups with all major hospital chains of India.   Alok Awasthi, Founder, SeekMed, New Delhi   -----------   “Reaching out to everyone in rural India” While 2020 was a challenge, 2021 is not going to be easier. At least the initial two quarters of the year will still be consumed in recuperating the businesses and going back to normal. The telemedicine sector has a lot to emphasize on and build an ecosystem that is healthier, safer and digitally equipped to attend all sorts of medical needs. Tattvan provides primary healthcare service and advanced healthcare opinion in rural areas and small towns, tier-2 and tier-3 cities. We are continuing with the same motive to make it a bigger revolution in the healthcare industry and reach out to everyone in rural India with our best services. Ayush Mishra, Chief Executive Officer, Tattvan e-clinics, Gurugram ---------- “Continuing exploring global collaboration” We were thrown into the pandemic without the tools we needed. Not enough diagnostic kits, ventilators or state-of-the-art sanitization technologies. That is when C-CAMP instituted the C-CAMP Innovations Deployment Accelerator (C-CIDA) to harvest world-class innovations growing in our own backyard. However, niggling issues remained like the bottlenecks in the supply chain of key reagents, enzymes, Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (APIs) and other crucial kit components that go into the making of a RT-PCR kit. Even as India’s vaccine development programme is nearing clinical approval, enzymes are short of supply. A case of the ‘missing reagent’ aptly sums up our current situation. C-CAMP is anchoring two major programmes to change this scenario- National Biomedical Resources Indigenization Consortium (NBRIC) and Rockefeller Foundation supported Indigenization of Diagnostics (InDx) programme. InDx is helping scale up manufacturing capacities for indigenous diagnostic kits to effectively meet the country’s testing needs. A million test kits a day is the programme’s promise. From straining to perform a few thousand tests, nationally, we are now aiming for a million a day. In 2021, we will continue to work towards bringing world-class innovations to society and to explore collaborations to bring global perspectives to India’s bio innovators and bio researchers. Dr Taslimarif Saiyed, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), Bengaluru ------------------------------ “Working on expanding beyond India” The pandemic created an unprecedented challenge to everyone, which in turn triggeredinnovative thinking. At NIRAMAI, we saw a decline in the number of screenings as womenhesitated to walk into hospital OPDs for non-emergency needs. We also did not conductscreening camps for many months in order to reduce crowding during the lockdown.However, the need for breast health will not change. So, we came up with a new way ofreaching out to people directly by launching our home screening service in partnership withhome care providers. Since we work in thermal imaging, which is a mandatory COVID-19screening requirement, we innovated on the product front too. We launched a new productfor automated temperature screening called Niramai FeverTest. Niramai is now clinicallyproven and established itself as an expert in breast health in many cities. In the coming year,we plan to scale up our services pan India to provide Niramai test in many more cities andfocus on creating further awareness about breast health in women. We also plan to work onexpanding beyond India. Dr Geetha Manjunath, Chief Executive & Technology Officer, Niramai, Bengaluru   “Planning to enter APAC market through partners” We have recently introduced our first range of novel COVID-19 diagnostics products in theform of RNA Wrapr. It is a molecular transport medium for COVID-19 sample collection,developed as part of the COVID-19 response team from Indian Institute of Science. RNAWrapr inactivates the virus immediately only preserving DNA/RNA content required for RT-PCR tests. The product is safe to handle even during unexpected accidental spillage orhandling errors. Developing countries can collect samples in centres without BSL2 or BSL3certifications. It is priced at Rs 99 in India, aligned with the price of one litre of petrol, tohelp the diagnostic centres upgrade from viral transport media (VTM) to moleculartransport media (MTM). We plan to enter the APAC market through partners with $9 and $6pricing plans per test. Azooka is striving to provide a safer molecular grade transportmedium that is at sub Rs 100. We are appealing to a segment of users, who care about thesafety of their frontline healthcare workers. Dr Fatima Benazir, Co-founder & Chief Scientific Officer, Azooka Labs, Bengaluru ]]> https://biospectrumindia.com/views/84/17855/showcasing-immense-potential-to-become-global-producer.html https://biospectrumindia.com/views/84/17855/showcasing-immense-potential-to-become-global-producer.html Mon, 28 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0530 “Investing in digitalization” We expect to have a few important additions to our portfolio this year and will continue to invest in our digitalization journey as we look to further scale up commercial models and stay focused on supporting doctors and patients in making procedures safer and effective. Shishir Agarwal, Managing Director, Terumo India, Gurugram ----------   “Producing millions of syringes for vaccination” “The front runner COVID-19 vaccines being launched in India would need a 0.5ml auto disable syringe for intramuscular drug delivery, as we are informed. In addition to the annual procurement of 300-350 millions of these syringes by the government for the universal immunization programme, additional orders have been placed on us by the health ministry. We are informed that the government is in discussion with their other two suppliers also to place additional orders or seek to prepone deliveries of already placed orders with them. We are on track to produce 177.6 million 0.5 ml KOJAK AD syringes for by March 2021 and 60 million are already in our stock.  Rajiv Nath, Joint Managing Director, Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices, New Delhi ------------   “Making wound care products available across 50 cities” As the first Indian company to launch an indigenously developed emergency haemostat for trauma care, Axio Biosolutions has been steadily disrupting the wound care and wound healing market. Responding to the growing demand for healthcare solutions that align with changing realities and challenges of the pandemic world, we have entered the retail space in India. We are all set to make the best-in-class wound care and COVID essential products available for Indian homes across 50 cities in 2021. Leo Mavely, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Axio Biosolutions, Bengaluru ------------   “Expanding plant to locally manufacture testing kits” In October 2020, we announced an investment of Rs 1,300 crore in India, the largest we have ever made in the country. We are setting up an innovation hub in a new campus in Bengaluru that will combine our existing R&D operations with an ultra-modern medical imaging factory. The innovation hub at Bengaluru will include centres of competence in digital technologies such as data analytics, artificial intelligence, immersive technologies like augmented and virtual reality, user experience, and cybersecurity. It will be one of the four innovation hubs of Siemens Healthineers, with other hubs located in the United States, Germany, and China. To expand our digital capabilities, we plan to add up to 1,800 digital talents in the next ten years, in addition to our normal growth. We have already made good progress on this front adding over 100 digital experts over the last few months. We are also expanding our manufacturing plant in Baroda to locally manufacture testing kits, which we currently import from our factories in Europe and the U.S. Gerd Hoefner, Managing Director, Siemens Healthcare, Bengaluru -------------   “Coming up with Total Lab Aautomation solution” Our global team is working on our next big plans to make Erba-Transasia a global IVD leader. We will continue to focus on providing reliable and affordable diagnostic solutions worldwide and soon become a total diagnostic solutions provider.  In the next 12-24 months, our R&D labs in France, UK, USA, Austria and India, will launch over 10 new, exciting, state-of-the-art systems in the fields of CLIA, molecular, high-end hematology, artificial intelligence, LIS, among others.  Also in the offing is a “Total Lab Automation” solution aimed at mid and large size laboratories. All these will soon make Transasia-Erba one among the top five companies globally to have ‘Total Solutions in Laboratory Diagnostics.’ Furthermore, providing end-to-end solutions and services with an emphasis on training of all lab personnel will continue to remain most relevant to us. Transasia has set up the "Erba Institute of Laboratory Technology" to fill the acute shortage of qualified and well trained lab technicians. We plan to further expand this facility to benefit more individuals.  Suresh Vazirani, Chairman & Managing Director, Transasia-Erba group, Mumbai ------------   “Aggressive plans for molecular diagnostics space” We have aggressive plans for the molecular diagnostics space such as RNA extraction manual/automation kit, RNA extraction automation system, LAMP based instrument, LAMP based COVID-19 tests, LFA based COVID -19 tests, LAMP based TB Assay, LAMP based Malaria, Dengue and Leptospira assays; indigenization in hematology segment such as one more 3 part hematology system, Entry level 5 part heamatology system, 200 T /H fully auto clinical chemistry system, cartridge based CLIA analyzer, cartridge based specific protein analyzer and IOT based semiautomated analyzer. Thomas John, Managing Director, Agappe Diagnostics, Ernakulam ------------   “Launching medical devices at affordable cost”   We are focused on enabling our users with tools to effectively monitor chronic ailments and improve their lifestyles. We plan to develop and launch more innovative medical devices at an affordable cost. Saurabh Goyal, Director, Nureca, Mumbai ------------   “Launching new products for biochemistry & diagnostics” We have gained considerable expertise in manufacturing and marketing of in-vitro diagnostic reagents. The company is targeting sales of Rs 50 crore by FY22 and has already launched many COVID-19 products. We have planned for increasing the share of exports out of total sales. Being a manufacturing company, we have targeted to launch new products in biochemistry and diagnostic range.  Abhinav Thakur, Managing Director, Accurex Biomedical, Mumbai ------------ “Bringing diagnostics to a device on your palm”  We have made significant investments in R&D to develop innovative products to change the face of diagnostics in India and at globe. To start with, we plan to launch the v 2.0 of Compact XL - the molecular lab in a box concept. This version would integrate the PCR capabilities into the current model, further improve the design and a major facelift. This machine will allow small labs to set-up and conduct molecular tests without incurring a huge capital cost and save on the referral samples they outsource to bigger labs. Further, small blood banks will also be able to take benefit of this and do NAT testing in-house. We will also roll out the truly mobile molecular labs which can travel to villages and small cities to test for various types of infections and diseases. Further, we are planning to bring a complete range of new tests that would allow us to improve diagnostics for COVID as well as other infections. These tests will be more accurate that the current paradigm and will match the current costs. Finally, there are two important projects that are still in our labs, driven by cutting edge technologies which have the potential to bring diagnostics to a device on your palm.  Hasmukh Rawal, Managing Director, Mylab Discovery Solutions, Pune -------------   “Adding more diagnostic products” We will be adding COVID-19 based and other diagnostic products in our portfolio. We will focus on indigenous manufacturing of lab disposables products. We are also planning on consolidation of exports. In FY21, we are expecting a growth of 50-60 per cent. Rajesh Beri, Director, Recombigen Laboratories, New Delhi ----------   “Planning to move ahead with IPO” The company started with the manufacturing of surgical blades and is now a leading supplier of a huge range of disposable products. In recent COVID-19 times we started manufacturing of 3ply and N95 face masks. We export to over 80 countries, have 40 distributors and 400 dealers across India. While people are indoors and complacent, we are on the roads trying to expand. Our future prospect is 3X5Y to grow 3 times in 5 years and then plan to move ahead with an IPO. We look forward to grow by 15 per cent this year over last year despite of COVID-19 where other companies we hear are facing losses. Shaily Grover, Managing Director, Paramount Surgimed, New Delhi -------------   “Hoping to record 50% growth trajectory” We are India’s fastest growing in-vitro diagnostic company manufacturing and delivering a wide range of analytical and diagnostic analyzers, point of care devices, reagents & consumables that are at par with global standards. We plan to introduce the non-existing, but essential products locally manufactured in India, which can bring the cost of analyzer to procure and annual maintenance in the affordable price range, maintain the quality as dictated by international standards, expand electrode menu, flexibility of the analyzer (to upgrade or downgrade it), position the brand amongst the established international players, provide the schemes like buyback or upgradation at nominal costs. This helps us grow at 40-60 per cent and help us retain the customer loyalty. Currently we are recording a consistent growth trajectory of 40 per cent and assuming this to be picked up to 50 per cent in next year. Pavan Chandra Nagoor Naralasetty, Commercial Director, Sensa Core Medical Instrumentation, Hyderabad --------------   “Bringing diagnostic solution based on gut microflora” We are South Asia’s first microbiome company. Our gut microbiome test, called BugSpeaks is a non-invasive gut microbiome test that provides insights into the health of an individual. We plan to conduct a few clinical trials and address some of the lifestyle based chronic diseases like diabetes, obesity. Secondly, we would also come up with novel diagnostic and therapeutic solutions based on the gut microflora.  Kumar Sankaran, Chief Executive Officer, Leucine Rich Bio, Bengaluru ------------   We have been developing Virtual clinical collaboration via Barco Synergi and remote radiology solutions to provide seamless operation in the event of a calamity. In 2021 we continue to co-create technology solutions for integrated care to ensure the best possible healthcare outcomes. Some of the key enablers in 2021 that will streamline treatment, reduce turnover time and downtime delivering ergonomic work conditions will be… Imaging technologies - 4K imaging will allow surgeons to clearly see inside a patient and perform surgery with the highest precision.  3D imaging improves the visibility of the patient’s anatomy and enhances surgical efficiency and accuracy in laparoscopic procedures with shorter operating times. Digital solutions to improve surgical teams’ productivity and efficiency to enable Integrated digital operating rooms of the future Artificial intelligence to aid diagnosis while the patient is still on the operating table, to guide surgery and support the later treatment. Rachel Coxon, Vice President, Healthcare, Barco APAC ----------- ]]>