‘Real innovation will now happen in East and move to West’

At the country's fourth largest pharma company Cadila Healthcare Ltd (also known as Zydus Cadila), a new passion flows to challenge existing therapeutic methods and create new milestones in healthcare. And that flows from Zydus Cadila’s newly appointed Managing Director Sharvil P. Patel, who was recently appointed to the top job of the ₹9,700-crore pharma major. He takes over from the Chairman and father Pankaj Patel who paved the way for succession, a topic that was under consideration for about a decade.

Speaking to BusinessLine on his new assignment, Sharvil Patel says his priorities will reflect both the company's existing philosophy and take on a new approach of patient centrality.

Sharvil believes it will be the key differentiator in the healthcare market going forward.

“We strongly believe that a lot of innovation has happened in the West and that benefited everybody - not by pricing but by therapy. Our vision is that real new innovation will happen now in the East and move towards the West. And we are working actively to realise that," Patel adds.

His future agenda in India and other emerging markets includes areas such as bio-similars, biologics and vaccines will become critical as it will support revenue generation and growth. Elaborating on making treatment patient-centric, he says, "Oncology is one of the fields where there is a lot of unmet need. We are building a strong product portfolio and aim to become no.1 in oncology segment. We are adopting a patient-centric model, which is specialised quality care — especially for the terminally ill.

“Affordability being a critical factor and adherence to therapy being most difficult to be maintained, our whole business model for oncology is based on patient centrality — means the patient comes first."

As part of the treatment, the programme identifies the difficulty a patient faces and accordingly a programme is developed. “It has yielded positive feedback from patients and physicians," says the 38-year-old MD.

Patel combines pharma and research expertise with a doctorate from the University of Sunderland, UK, for his research work in Breast Cancer at John Hopkins, Bayview Medical Centre, USA.

Fresh from his research works and studies abroad, Sharvil was put into the 'induction' — to spearhead the ambitious Healthy Billion project — a vision of his father Pankaj Patel to make Zydus a $1-billion company.

“That was the time when I learnt most part of the organisation," he recalls, adding, “That first project, which I ran, was most critical for me from the point of view of not only for my induction but also for knowing where the organisation is moving forward."

He believes that R&D and compliance, followed by productivity will be the crucial aspects for the company.

Zydus under Sharvil Patel will strengthen its existing capabilities in cardio vascular, gastro-intestinal, respiratory, oncology and neuro-generic portfolios for the emerging markets.

However, the US will remain the key driver with the revenue share targeted to increase from 39 per cent to 45-48 per cent in the next two-three years.

“We plan to build another line of business in the US, besides generics. We have taken our plunge into specialty business with areas such as neuropathic pain, gastro-intestinal, oncology and dermatology."

“The investors should see the critical milestones that we achieve in the areas of clinical programmes and complex products. This is not about today but it is about the next five years," Patel says.

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