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Indian pharma and machinery sector is keen to transit to a Smart Factory model to mitigate challenges of COVID-19 like lockdowns in the coming years. The machinery sector is the lifeline to the pharmaceutical industry. More so during the lockdown, the two sectors teamed-up to ensure uninterrupted medicine supply for patients battling the pandemic globally and in India.
Noting the importance of regular supply of drugs across the healthcare centres, Kaushik Desai, advisor, Indian Pharma Machinery Manufacturers Association (IPMMA) said that COVID-19 has affected day-to-day subsistence of everyone around globe and India is no exception. As essential services, operations of pharma and machinery sectors did not come to a standstill.
However, this pandemic has brought out unique challenges to the fore which were never thought of. The machinery sector has undergone a radical change in its approach to work and support the pharma industry, Desai noted at a webinar on ‘COVID-19: Pharma and Machinery sector joining hands to mitigate the issues’.
“In these particularly challenging times, flexibility and adaptability are vital. As we have always believed, challenging times present great opportunities, the positive side of this pandemic too is that both sectors are working as a cohesive team,” said Desai.
The panel of experts at the webinar: Narsima Raju, site head, quality, Dr. Reddys Laboratories; Ashis Banerjee, CMD, Gansons; Shankar Gupta, COO, ACG Engineering; R Ramanathan, COO & director, Parle Global Technologies; Vishesh Parekh, managing partner, INCOME, and Shaunak Dave, CEO (Asia), Optel Group said that a Smart Factory concept is the next industrial revolution for the pharma and machinery sector.
Providing a perspective on the current situation, the panel noted that major issues at present included continuing manufacturing with minimum workforce, difficulty to access machinery spare parts and at the same time ensure employee safety.
There are some machines or critical spare parts under clearance by customs in India and other countries. Yet going by a pressing demand for hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) tablets for export and the domestic market supply, we had to buck up to ensure seamless production schedules and a strong supply chain, noted the experts.
Queries from Desai, who was the moderator of the webinar, prompted the panel to respond to the kind of actions taken during the prevailing tough scenario. These experiences included moves to tackle trouble shooting, stocking adequate spares to thwart production loss.
The experts observed that it was perseverance, adaptability and agility along with technology adoption that enabled efficiency in manufacture. Hence the future would see a surge in advanced and novel technology implementation with automation and digitisation.
Pharma is moving towards high volume generics, including biosimilars, biologics, orphan drugs and backward integration of APIs. Hence the effort is to sustain proactive approaches to lower costs and streamline operations as we see only a Smart Factory concept as the answer, they concluded.
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