The FMCG companies work on delivering the clients with quality enhanced products. With lifestyle changes the FMCG sector has transformed for the good. It has wide-ranging category varying from natural goodness to lifestyle essentials and many more. It has incorporated effective various measures as client-friendly approach, innovative mechanisms, creating awareness for the smooth sailing of the company. Integrating all these measures, the legal firms have gained a fruitful momentum in their overall project success.
In an interview with Insights Success, Jagadeesh Babu and Manik Reddy, Co-founders at Biophere India Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd gave some insightful answers highlighting the influences of his company, unique service offerings, founding ideals, current and future perceptions.
With a rich experience, Jagadeesh Babu, CEO of Biophere founded the company in the year 2007. He has completed his Ph.D. from BITS, Pilani and has successfully worked at national and international domain for several years. Introducing various innovations he still continues to focus on research with a vision to develop new pharmaceutical products to global markets.
- Kindly brief us about the company.
Biophore India Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd (Biophore) was founded by Dr Jagadeesh Babu and Dr Manik Reddy, two eminent scientists with over 45 years of research experience between them, in the year 2007. The focus since inception was on innovation and research and 10 years down the line, the company is on the right path with an 80,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art R&D center and a formulation facility in Hyderabad and two world class API manufacturing units, with a third under construction, in Vizag.
The API facilities cover complex APIs from gram levels to tonnage levels, with both facilities capable of producing more than 100 products with dedicated production lines for segments such as sterile and anti-cancer. Biophore currently owns more than 60 US DMFs covering niche segments such as contrast media, oncology, peptides etc with a healthy pipeline of under development APIs. The formulation facility is capable of manufacturing about 1 Billion units annually.
- Please tell us about your Founder/CEO/ Director and his/her contribution towards the Company and the industry.
The two co-founders, Dr Jagadeesh Babu and Dr Manik Reddy, have been associated since 1998 from their BITS Pilani days, and went on to work together at Navinta, of which Dr Jagadeesh was the co-founder. All through these years, there was a determined plan to move back to India and utilize the abundant technical and manufacturing skills in the country. This was also backed by a strong motivation to be a pioneer in promoting Indian pharmaceutical talent. This led to the establishment of Biophore in Hyderabad with an aim to be a fully integrated and innovative pharmaceutical organization creating value to the patient.
- Kindly talk about the unique services and products of your company?
Biophore’s offerings are broadly divided into three segments
– API: We offer niche and complex APIs with high entry barriers to the finished dose manufacturers. These products are developed mainly for the US market and then leveraged globally
– Dossiers: Apart from the APIs, we have also forward integrated and offer our customers value added products in the form of formulation dossiers, which help the customers by providing the necessary technology to develop their formulation
– FDF: We complete the forward integration by offering the complete end product ready to reach the market in terms of finished dose formulations. Relevant regulatory, analytical and operational support is provided, where required, for all the above products/services
- Kindly mention the awards and accolades received by the CEO / Director and the company? Also share with us the milestones achieved by the company over the last three decades.
- Consecutively Top 10 companies for filing DMF in the USA for the year 2014-16.
- Filed 75 DMFs with US, Canada and EU authorities
- Filed 110 Patents in areas of novel polymorphs and process
- Third most USDMFs filed worldwide in 2015
- Recognized as one of the fastest growing pharma companies by Silicon Review® Magazine
- Featured as a Cover Story in Insights Success business magazine.
- Featured in cover story of CEO magazine.
- Awarded Pharma Leader of the year 2017 by well-known regional news channel TV5.
- Awarded India’s Small Giant for the year 2018 by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (Government of India).
- Awarded as most promising Research & Development Pharmaceutical Company at International Healthcare awards 2018.
- Awarded-India Toady’s Make in India in the Biotechnology category for 2018.
- Awarded as TOP 100 Small and Medium enterprise across all industry segments in India by Government of India (INDIA SME).
- What are the major challenges the company has faced over the years in terms of rising cost, growth, and evolving new players in the industry?
Although we were able to effectively leverage the in-house skill set to develop, scale up and manufacture the products, there were a couple of critical hurdles faced during the initial days – Marketing and Differentiation. It was a challenge to promote our products to the customers, given that we were a company which was fresh off the blocks. However, with a focus on consistent quality, timely deliveries and efficient support, we were able to gain the trust of the customers as a reliable Indian partner to associate with. There was also a conscious effort to distinguish the company from competition by identifying niche products such as orphan drugs for rare diseases and also provide early launch advantage through innovative products and processes.
- What are the opportunities for every employee to make a valuable and valued contribution in your company?
Biophore strongly believes that the greatest asset of the organization is the people capital. And this capital needs to be complemented by providing empowerment at every level in the company. There is a conscious effort by the management to provide this freedom to employees to take decisions and provide the relevant resources to implement them. This has created a sense of ownership within the employees and the results are seen in the way each and every employee operates.
- What are the current trends in the FMCG pharma industry and how do you foresee the future of the industry?
There is a growing trend in the pharmaceutical industry in terms of integration, either vertically or horizontally. Companies will continue to reinforce their capabilities in adding more markets and products to their portfolio or moving along with value chain.
We have successfully taken our first step in forward integration, through the acquisition of the oral formulation facility in Hyderabad. Our next step in this direction is to invest in an injectable facility, which enables us to have a more complete offering in terms of portfolio. We have also made a strategic decision to focus more and diversify into global markets
Apart from the above, we have elaborate plans to enter diversified segments such as biologics, nutraceuticals and diagnostics in the near future.
- How FMCG pharma industry contributes in boosting the Indian Economy?
The pharmaceutical industry in India is one of the largest in the world in terms of exports and produces around 20-25% of the global generic drugs. It is also one of the largest producers of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) globally. The domestic consumption of pharmaceutical products, most of which is produced locally is the world’s 3rd largest market in terms of volumes. All these facts point to the significant role that the pharma industry plays in the Indian scenario. Now with China implementing a crackdown on their local producers due to regulatory violations, India is poised to take a major share of the shortfall that will be created globally due to this.
- Kindly share the Vision and Mission of your organization.
VISION STATEMENT
Our aim is to place Biophore in the midst of most reliable knowledge-based firms in the API sector in the immediate near-future through customer-focused approach
MISSION STATEMENT
To be the most trusted R & D Company in the complex and niche pharmaceutical molecule segments and achieves superior Customer Satisfaction through
- Continuous Innovation
- Providing an inclusive work culture that helps our employees excel and grow
- What are your founding ideals that have driven the company so far?
Since inception, Biophore was driven with a passion to be a trusted partner in the pharmaceutical space for the global markets and a profound vision of making a real contribution towards invention of new drugs with continuous research and innovation for the future. We had identified a largely unmet need for a reliable partner who could deliver complex and rare products to the market in a timely manner and there has been an unwavering focus at all levels within the organization to bridge this gap. Innovation is another key driver behind the growth plan, with Biophore filing close to 100 patents in US, EU, China, Japan, Russia, Brazil, Korea, Australia, and Israel among others.
Equally important was the determination of the management to give back to the society which is evident in the elaborate CSR activities taken up by the organization. Biophore strongly believes that education is the basic need for all and will empower the society towards building a great nation. We actively support in providing educational needs and infrastructure in various institutions and NGOs (e.g. Naandi foundation, Peddannapadu Educational Society, RV College of Engineering etc) through participation, financial assistance and scholarship to the deserving students. Through this initiative, Biophore has supported the academic needs of 2000 students so far, which is considered as one of the biggest achievements of the organization today. We have also adopted 3 villages with an objective to improve the overall living conditions of the population.
- How does pharma innovation differ between India and other countries?
India is regarded as the pharmaceutical hub for the generic medicines which offers enormous economic advantage thus ensuring affordable healthcare to all. While the other countries like the USA and Europe focus on innovation of new drugs across various therapeutic segments.
- Kindly provide us with a quote which best describes your company.
“A trusted partner for niche generics”
