‘Reduce API reliance, improve pharma packaging’

Tushar Jani, Group Chairman, Cargo Service Center, while attending pharma Digital Conclave organised by Cargo Talk on July 21st says, “If you look at one trillion target of merchant exports, it is 57 billion which comes from pharma alone, that’s a great news. The only challenge is API for which we are dependent on China and we have to figure out how we can become self-sufficient. Our second innovation comes in terms of packing material, we need to make more sustainable packing material, India should take the lead in developing packing material to remove the dry ice which is actually against the environmental issue. Third, we need to develop an eco-system for pharma e-commerce for transportation of generic drugs out of India, for this we have distribution centres across the globe – in US, Europe, Far East, Africa and in many other countries but we need to expand our global reach and presence. India should become global pharma e-commerce leader, it will have great market penetration so that’s the ultimate goal. To achieve the global market share of generic drugs from current 20% to 40 %, India should consider above points. If we have this in place, we can achieve the said target in 7 years. The only concern is high Freight rates. We have great cold storage infrastructure for handling and transporting temperature-sensitive products, we have skilled manpower, over thousand scientists manufacturing drugs, great R&D by govt and private players. We need to address raw material availability and reduced dependence on China for API.”