In spite of the global slowdown and the election code forcing the state government to remain low key, the first outing of the 25 year old US based Informex event had a better than decent showing. The organizers promise to be back in 2011 in Gujarat 's business capital, Ahmedabad. An Express Pharma report

InformexINDIA 2009, the first and only incarnation of InformEx outside of USA , was held at University Grounds, Ahmedabad from March 12-14. True to its tagline, 'Chemistry you won't find anywhere else', Informex India was an "Information Exchange" between buyers and vendors from the fine and specialty chemicals and pharmaceuticals industries with specific needs and skills.

The event was inaugurated by the Chief Guest, D Rajagopalan, Chief Secretary, Government of Gujarat and the Guest of Honour, Dr Surinder Singh, Drug Controller General ( India ), in the presence of Advisory Committee Chairman Pankaj Patel, CMD, Zydus Cadila. Other dignitaries on the dias were M. Gandhi, MD, UBM India; John Stuttard, Head, Informex USA; Sudhir Mehta, Chairman, Torrent Pharma; Janmejay R Vyas, Managing Director, Dishman Pharma; Sudhir Vaidya, MD, Concord Biotech and Sushil Handa, CEO, Claris Life Sciences

"Keeping in view the concentration of pharma, medical devices and growing clinical research organizations (CROs) in the state, the central government has decided to upgrade the status of Drug Controller office in Gujarat region to a zonal office. This would mean lot of convenience and speedy clearance, and approval for the pharma, medical devices and clinical research industry based in Gujarat ," announced Singh, at the opening session.

Singh, as guest of honour, elaborated on the measures that the central government has initiated to streamline procedures for government clearances and approval for pharma and medical devices industry, as well as to ensure patient safety and safe clinical research practices.

Talking about the various initiatives that DCG(I)office has taken Singh informed that 62 more posts of drug inspectors have been cleared which would help in speedy clearing of procedures. He further stated that in order to bring more safety and transparency, registration of all the organizations involved in clinical trials and research will be made mandatory and such organizations will be audited for adherence to protocols and laid down procedures for patient safety. He also informed that a registry of CROs will be made which will have important data like design of CR, target and sponsors details etc.

He announced that soon in consultation with Medical Council of India, pharmacovigilance centers will be established in select medical colleges of India which will oversee the various aspects of safety and adherence of guidelines. e-governance initiatives are also being stepped up to increase transparency in the procedures and clearances, encourage adaptation of best practices in global environment.

" India with it's reputation for academic excellence in chemistry and its imposing stature for having more FDA approved sites outside of the USA than any other country, is a natural choice for a new Informex. And thus the next edition of InformEx India will be held in 2011, and promises to become a regular calendar event for Gujarat, further enhancing its position as an invincible chemical and pharma hub," said Gandhi.

The second day of the event saw two parallel conference tracks at the same venue. One track featured presentations on "Current economic slow down and the steps to over come it" where speakers stressed that the slowdown was the best time to invest in clean technology for achieving higher efficiency in specialty chemicals industry as it would result in reduction in costs, easier effluent treatment and higher profits.

The parallel panel discussion on "Scenario of pharma industry - present and future" had a distinguished panel led by Ashok Kumar, IAS, Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), Government of India. Patel, Mehta and Dr P V Appaji, Executive Director, Pharmexcil made up the rest of the Panel. The discussion was moderated by Viveka Roychowdhury, Editor, Express Pharma .

Giving an overview of the Government's direction on pharma policy, the Secretary informed delegates that DoP would soon be releasing a White Paper on Vision 2020. The purpose of the report is to promote drug discovery and innovation in the pharma industry, supported by government spending to the tune of $1-2 billion annually till 2020. The vision is that by 2020, on in every five new drug discoveries will have at least some part of the work done in India . Therefore he said, the intention is to promote research off shoring to India and promote the country as the cheapest location to do pharma R&D, and not just cost effective manufacturing.

Patel, as CMD, Zydus Cadila stressed that just as India had proved her skills in process chemistry, there is now a need to do this in "process biology". "We need to develop newer leaner technologies and operational excellence is going to be critical in the current economic scenario," he said. Elaborating the topic he said, "Upto now, most pharma plants have been constructed by pharma technologists, not engineers so the engineering tools for operational excellence have not been fully used. Concepts like six sigma and lean manufacturing need to be implemented to survive as the market grows. Therefore even though we are not very affected in this recession, we need to move to the next level."

Outlining a strategy map to do this he said, "First, we need to burn the fat and create muscle, become lean and strong so that we can grow fast when the recession ends and emerge winners. Secondly, we need to implement operational excellence methods. Thirdly, we need to re-look business strategy as the world order will change after the recession. Fourthly, we need to take a talent inventory. And fifthly, because companies are in a bad state due to the recession, we should see it as an opportunity to expand into new markets via mergers and acquisitions."

Speaking on "Indian Pharma Industry's Competitiveness and Future in the world market", Appaji said that as the top 10 Indian companies account for nearly 30 percent of the Indian pharma industry's exports, there is a huge potential for the remaining pharma companies to increase their exports. He mentioned that Pharmexcil has opened an Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) centre, with an emphasis on helping the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector. This is very important as smaller players are sometimes not fully aware of the patent status of the products they export, resulting in seizures at ports in the European Union (EU).

The event drew more than 3000 visitors in three days, according to Gandhi. More than 100 top chemical and pharma companies of the likes of Zydus Cadila, Deepak Nitrite, Cadila Pharma, Sanofi Aventis, JB Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals, Torrent Pharma, Meghmani Group, Sun Pharma, Aarti Industries and Sajjan Chemicals, Sterling , Norris Medicines, and Intas Pharma participated in the exhibition. Summing up their satisfaction with InformEX's first show out of the US , Gandhi said, "We have made a good start. Now it's a question of taking the brand forward."