It’s not just about innovating in India for India, but also innovating in India for the rest of the world, says Michael Warmuth, global head of Abbott’s pharmaceuticals business, on the US healthcare major’s plans to strengthen India as an “innovation hub”.
India will house one of Abbott’s six innovation hubs and would feed pharmaceutical product launches in 30 countries, said Warmuth, at a breakfast meeting with BusinessLine . “We’re taking a pretty significant step forward, we are doubling our scientific talent here in India (to 100) . We are moving into a new facility,” he said, possibly by early 2018. The other pharmaceuticals-oriented innovation hubs are in Singapore, Germany, Columbia, Brazil and Russia.
The new Innovation Development (I&D) hub will be housed in a 10 storey dedicated building in suburban Mumbai, said Bhaskar Iyer, Head of Abbott’s India operations. With analytical and clinical capabilities, a pilot plant for scale up etc, the facility would support Abbott’s “established pharmaceuticals” business. “We are no longer dabbling in this area, we’re going into it in a more significant manner to benefit the rest of Abbott pharmaceuticals globally,” says Warmuth.
Products will be tailored to meet unmet needs in the country and aligned to global requirements, he said, adding, “The old model of the big pharma company that would innovate one solution and then try to push it in every country , it just doesn’t work. So we have a different view and that’s innovate in India for India.”
Pointing to India’s “frugal innovation” skills (that gets less expensive products quickly into the market), Warmuth said, “We’ve done a lot of things in the name of innovation historically …..as an industry. We have built solutions that nobody wanted or and couldn’t afford.” “The idea here is meet the need and do it quickly and move on and do it over and over again. So frugal is a good thing,” he adds.
Regulatory environment
Commenting on India’s “fluid” or “unpredictable” regulatory environment often cited as a hurdle by foreign companies, Warmuth says, “The regulators have a role to play, we have a role to play, but in the end, we both work for the same person and that’s the patient. So the idea that they are trying to change the rule is something that I believe is well intentioned.”
However, the regulatory process needs to be more collaborative to benefit the patient, he says. “When I see the policies that are coming, logic generally prevails but it is a somewhat torturous process,” he says, adding, that too was not unique to India.
Post Piramal
The latest research build-up comes six years after Abbott bought Piramal’s domestic formulation drugs business for $ 3.7 billion (2010). The mandate now is to grow organically, says Warmuth, adding that they are open to acquisition opportunities, again, a situation not unique to India or the pharmaceuticals business.
Commenting on another development involving Abbott that took place months ago – where a medical representative committed suicide in Indore -- Warmuth said an employee assistance programme had been instituted. Iyer explained that it involved an anonymous helpline for employees and their families to get counselling, be it on work-related stress or personal issues. The incident was a first in 100-plus years in India, he said, adding that they took it seriously and the assistance programme was part of their efforts to address stress among employees and their families.
jyothi.datta@thehindu.co.in
Info-box: India accounts for 20 percent of Abbott’s global pharma sales, at $ 3.7 billion in 2015. The innovation hub would be supported by its Baddi plant (Himachal Pradesh), also being scaled-up for exports. Abbott’s traditional therapeutic areas include gastro enterology and womens health. |