There is leadership in every single moment. Seeing what others can’t, bringing it of the filters and thus being able to read it through a different lens is what makes a leader creative. Also, creativity lies in thinking out loud and experimenting beyond the horizons. One who has the spark for innovation will successfully ignite the flame of creativeness.
One such visionary and a serial trailblazer is Vamsi Maddipatla. His journey at the initial stages started by being the CEO of Laxai Pharma Ltd in the US which motivated him to become the co-founder and CEO of Laxai Avanti Life Sciences in 2007. In March 2017, Vamsi completely took over Laxai Avanti Life Sciences, thus Laxai Life Sciences was born with a new avatar and an even focused vision, he is currently the Chairman and the Managing Director. The company was established with a vision to accelerate the discovery chemistry campaign of global pharmaceutical companies, by supporting the high quality compounds in cost leadership and accelerated timelines.
Being a pioneer in setting up many successful ventures, he brings with him more than eighteen years of experience in agri-infra, operations, technology, bio-pharma and manufacturing sectors. Vamsi has been the driving force in establishing Laxai amongst the leading innovative biotech companies in India, providing cutting-edge Biotech solutions to large players across the globe.
Meet the Versatile Corporate Leader
Vamsi believes that he gets his work motivation by the smooth running events and milestones he achieves. He is a post graduate in Computer Science from Farleigh Dickinson University. Always motivated by the desire to meet challenges, he asserts, “setting and defying the challenge gives me such a sense of accomplishment. I create an organized schedule for completing a task and achieving my deadlines”.
Over the years, Vamsi’s constant efforts has steered Laxai’s way up in the Indian Life Sciences landscape. It has recently moved into a state-of-the-art 50,000 Square feet(Sq,Ft), Good Laboratory Practice (GLP), R&D facility in Shamirpet. He is also the CEO of Therapiva Pvt Ltd a joint venture between Laxai and Neopharma, one of the largest pharmaceutical company of the middle east. He spearheads Clinovo, a clinical/pharma resourcing solutions organization in the San Francisco, bay area. He was also effective in establishing an agri-warehousing company called OSR Infra.
Apart from this, Vamsi had been instrumental in many strategic alliances and has worked with many well-known organizations such as Pfizer, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, and Deloitte. His ability to facilitate collaboration amongst the right audience and converting strategic concepts into actionable plans; is what makes him versatile and a successful leader for all his ventures.
Vamsi’s cocktail of skills have led Laxai to steer its way from a fee for service only CRO to an integrated drug discovery CRO and CDMO. Today, the company is amongst the preferred CROs to major Biotechnology and Oncology companies in the US. Vamsi has played a major role in establishing the track record by delivering a technology platform and the three clinical candidates for leading mid-size and giant Bio-Pharma companies.
CEO’s Take on Challenges
Vamsi had been facing various challenges since inception of his career. The biggest challenge was assisting Laxai to withstand the market complexities. He was the primary pillar who kept holding the roots of foundation of the company when it lacked resources. Converting these challenges into opportunities he asserts, “it was an uphill struggle to keep sales levels up and costs down while maintaining the usual high standards of service. I learned a great deal from the experience”. He devised and implemented cost control measures helped the company to successfully ride out the turbulence, paving a significantly healthier pathway for Laxai and its customers.
Laxai and its Unique Services
Laxai was established with a vision to advance the preclinical drug discovery pipe line for global pharmaceutical and biotech companies by providing scientific solutions as their extended R&D arm. Team Laxai consists of business and technical experts with techno commercial blend having decades of global experience of working with large number of global pharmaceutical and biotech companies.
Laxai offers high quality services with global leadership, competitive pricing, and accelerated timelines by combining science and innovation. Under the guidance of Vamsi, Laxai offers integrated R&D services as well as a range of standalone functions such as Med Chem, Chemistry, Scale-up, CADD, In-vitro, In-vivo biology, and DMPK. These preclinical drug discovery functions are structurally interconnected with a unique signature of Laxai named ‘design make test analyze’ (DMTA) cycle for an efficient delivery of the project. Additionally, bringing the right scientific pool of services that supports collaboration and constantly upgrade the infrastructure to suit the dynamic nature of projects is Laxai’s forte.
The Journey Ahead
India is gearing up to become an international player in the life sciences space, powered by its recent economic growth and a desire to add biotechnology to its portfolio. Appreciating the important role that Pharma/ biotechnology will play in this century, the Indian government is expanding as well as starting several new biological research institutes, which will open up many new positions for life science researchers.
Acknowledging the current industry scenario, Vamsi states that “we aspire to become a ‘one-stop destination partner’ for a limited number of companies to provide drug discovery and biotechnology services”.
