Global Pharmaceutical Industry Trends & A New way to look at Entrepreneurship - By Mr. Rajesh Pednekar

Let me introduce you to one of the most prominent Alum of NITIE, Mr Rajesh Pednekar, who is currently Head-Distribution for Pfizer, is IM-1 passout and has more than 16 years of experience in logistics & supply chain divisions with leading multinational and domestic companies. The session on -"Global Pharmaceutical Industry Trends: Supply Chain Challenges & Opportunities"on 13th July 2013 by Rajesh sir gave a perfect start to the new MBA season in our lives. Being the son of a medical stockist and having ran the business myself, I was looking forward to the session. He opened the session by showing a video casting India’s size, image as an emerging leader in all aspects. This was followed by mention of the size, forecasts and opportunities underlining the Pharmaceutical industry across the globe. BRICMT, being the emerging markets in this sector, the sector has the potential to grow to the level of 1.5 Trillion US$ by 2020 but government regulation in pricing (eg. Drug Price Control Order by Indian Government), patents, drug discovery cost and fast changing sales & marketing trends present stiff challenge to this industry. We were illuminated by the knowledge regarding Temperature based Supply Chain classification and Primary & Secondary Transportation.


                                                     
                                                        Mr Rajesh Pednekar


The major focus was then given on supply chain challenges in this sector in India:

• Logistics cost account for 13% of India’s GDP which is worse as compared to other countries (US-9%, Europe-10%)
• Existing CST based Tax regime of India hostile to warehousing
• Poor cold chain infrastructure
• Power and regulatory challenges
• Insurance Challenges
• Extreme weather conditions

“India is 4th largest pharmaceuticals market by volume but 14th by value!! But, future seems bright as India is expected to reach the 4th position in value terms by 2020”

The advantages that India has in store in itself are:

• Huge knowledge base, manpower
• Clinical trials
• Process R&D, manufacturing
• Manufacture of off-patent drugs
• Contract Manufacturing
• Active Ingredients, packaging

The examples of Nicholas Piramal, Mankind Pharma and Eric Life Sciences were given as innovators in the industry.

The second half of the session was based on motivating the students to think and take a leap forward towards entrepreneurship. The way sir explained the advantages of entrepreneurship left most of us mesmerized. He gave us a completely different perspective about starting a new business. The differences between doing a job for someone else and doing our own business, as told by sir, has fascinated a lot of us to take up entrepreneurship at some point in our lives.

With a note of thanks to Mr. Pednekar for bestowing upon us his magnificent insights into Pharmaceutical Industry and Entrepreneurship, I just wish I could know more about how Rajesh sir achieved so much savings in an otherwise very large and complex pharmaceutical supply chain.