With around 54 Pharmaceutical manufacturing units in Goa, employing 20,000 people and exporting 70% of its produce, Goan Pharma looks to embrace new trends and maintain its position as the country's essential thriving pharmaceutical hub. The recently held annual conference of GPMA (Goa Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association) highlighted the pharma scenario in Goa and underlined its future.
In their keynote addresses, Sweta Dessai, director at Goa Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) and Dr Kishan Kumar Bhardwaj, ADC, Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) Goa, expressed how India is the pharmacy of the world, supplying affordable healthcare products. GPMA president Pravin Khullar explained how Goa's pharmaceutical industry is the major player in India, producing about 12% of the country’s medicines and growing at 15% per year.
The panellists discussed R&D, innovation, and how quality, cost, and technology can work together with a flavour of artificial intelligence and additive manufacturing. As they debated sustainability, it was spelled out that sustainability is the buzzword and, by industry jargon, means reducing the adverse environmental effects of the operations.
Pharmaceutical companies contribute to 5% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the world, so the industry must negate the influence and be sustainable through R&D and good manufacturing processes. Since quality matters, a start must be made with sustainability by design. Further, it can be bifurcated into various heads; one would be responsible sourcing; the second would be the operational part, which is manufacturing and packaging; and lastly, transportation.
Regarding sourcing, the industry must source from companies that follow sustainable practices with the information about their environmental parameters provided year on year. Companies must look to minimise imports and procure indigenous materials, which reduces transportation and significantly contributes to greenhouse emissions. They must also focus on green chemistry, concentrating on environmentally friendly practices, reducing hazardous solvents and using renewable energy.
Many companies like Pfizer have adopted green chemistry in their operations and reduced the processes from a multi-step to a single process, where you get better yields and reduce the wastage of water and waste generated from processes. A lot of sustainability parameters can be met through the efficiency of operations.
Sustainable packaging is also of prime importance and should be designed during the initial stage itself. Regarding transportation, the industry must try to minimise the use of cold chains and use naturally refrigerated vehicles. They must also make use of land and sea routes instead of air routes. The focus must be on the seven Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Redesign, Repair, Recover, and Remanufacture.
Globally, the pharma market is available at 1.6 trillion, and our country has set a target of 130 billion by 2030, which shows a considerable gap. Recently, there was a survey amongst the top CEOs in the pharma industry, where they reiterated that if they invest judiciously in AI and modernise their digitals, they will get a lot of monetary value in AI and tech.
One of the fundamental questions that the IT chief in a pharma company faces is, when you adopt AI, how do you integrate it with your existing technology, and how must this architecture be understood well before adopting digital technologies? Amongst new technologies currently trending is IOT (Internet of Things) to monitor consignments, AI and Robotics, which increase efficiency, optimise quality and increase the flexibility of the operations, reduce costs, ensure quicker delivery to the markets and a better tracking of the consignments. AI also helps improve regulatory compliance, better documentation, remote monitoring, supply chain management, and equipment and manufacturing process surveillance.
This is a disruption era; the traditional systems have delivered and will continue to deliver in the times to come, too. New technologies will emerge and need to be integrated with the conventional systems. AI works on the data input that you give, so data is structured, coordinates with every champion in the process, and aids the system.
Lately, data privacy has also gained momentum in a big way, and the pharma sector needs to tread with caution, with the Personal Data Protection Act already being enacted. Going forth, companies need to propel ahead with a two-fold strategy of investing in a data privacy policy and engaging a consultant and lawyer. Data is paramount to the industry, especially formulations, with laws expected to be reinforced strictly in the future.
(The writer is Laghu Udyog Bharati, Goa State President, Assocham Empowerment Chair, and member of the GCCI Managing Committee)
