From rewarding employees when they do a good job to tacking the fall-out from the spread of the coronavirus, top brass from the pharmaceutical industry expressed their commitment to addressing such challenges, as they worked towards putting India higher on the quality map.

The industry needs to reward and recognise employees doing good work and not penalise everyone for something that may have gone wrong in one plant or because on one individual, said Nilesh Gupta, Lupin’s Managing Director, speaking at the finale CEO Panel of the Indian Pharmaceutical Forum (IPF) 2020.

Touching on a challenge that has often been pointed out by international regulators, Satish Reddy, Chairman, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, said that a culture needed to be created in companies that empowered people to speak up and do the right thing. “This has been a challenge in the industry,” said Reddy, also President of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance that organises this forum annually along with Indian and other international regulatory authorities.

The two-day event takes up critical regulatory issues faced by the pharmaceutical industry as they sell in markets across the world.

The panel included Sun Pharmaceutical’s Managing Director Dilip Shanghvi, Cipla Executive Vice Chairperson Samina Vaziralli and Cadila Healthcare’s Chairman Pankaj Patel.

Alluding to the large millennial population that are increasingly part of the workforce, Vaziralli said that retaining talent is like a treadmill, where you can’t stop or get off, and need to constantly engage. While skilling employees was required, she said, it was also important for seniors to go the shop-floor to raise morale and have families’ day at work, for example.

Sun’s Dilip Shanghvi pointed out that it was also important to ensure that lessons learnt stayed with employees. Encouraging industry colleagues and employees to take happiness out of things that work, he said, that short-term pressures did not affect him, as he looked at long-term outcomes. Cadila’s Pankaj Patel urged employees to tackle stress as a good challenge and use it as a motivation.

The star-studded panel was unanimous in ensuring that India remained the pharmacy to the world, a provider of quality, affordable medicines. Lupin’s Gupta urged the industry to keep the patient at the centre of their efforts, that is a good moral compass, he added.

Seeking Govt support

Responding to audience queries on the immediate challenge posed by the coronavirus and the pressure it was expected to put on active pharmaceutical ingredients and intermediates that companies sourced from China, Cadila’s Patel said that the industry was in talks with the Centre to reduce their dependence on sourcing supplies from one geography, China.

DRL’s Reddy said that efforts were on to make the industry self-sufficient not just in the face of the current challenge, but otherwise too. And in that journey they expected support from the Government as well.

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