J. Jayaseelan, Vice President, Industrial Pharmacy Division, Indian Pharmaceutical Association gave his insights on how digitization has helped pharma industry in the country evolve at the Elets Digital Pharma Summit. Edited Excerpts.
Reiterating that India is the ‘pharmacy of the world’, Mr. J. Jayaseelan, Vice President, Industrial Pharmacy Division, Indian Pharmaceutical Association added that no other industry from India made this impact of saving lives across countries, going beyond business. He stated that it is not only the vaccine that India produced, but the regular medicines for chronic ailments, medicine for diabetes, hypertension, antibiotics and many more. He added that all these medicines hold their own significance as last two years were gone in dealing primarilyand without these regular medicines, how could one ensure security or health safety in the country.
He averred that while people were ready for digitization even five years back, but the pandemic made the digitization impact more severe. “By force or by default, pharma industry whether big or small, was somehow part of digitalization. Otherwise we would not have survived,” stated Mr. Jayaseelan. He averred that the industry was forced to learn all digital things & processes and how the pandemic has made digitalization to come into life little earlier.
He further talked about how in pharma, R&D is important and for that money and time, both are integral. Before digitalization, it involved a lot of time and money. While in the present times, IoT, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data blockchain, these digitalization tools has made R&D very viable for Indian pharma companies. He stated that with these digitalization tools, multiple data can be processed and AI & other tools are used very efficiently to pick up the target molecule or target product thereby reducing time and money. “As a result the progress is better in R&D,” added Mr. Jayaseelan.
He shared that now even product approvals can be done through virtual audits using the digital medium. He further elaborated on how digitalization is also refining manufacturing of products with precision. He also talked of how production of goods will also benefit with robotics, bringing down operational costs and also enable & strengthen the logistics and supply chain. He also emphasized on the role of digital tools to store patient data and how it enabled patient consultation to treat basic ailments during the peak of the pandemic when clinics & hospitals were shut. Doctors started using whatever media was available with them to advise patients. He averred this is how pharma companies were also pushed towards using the virtual medium to market their products. This further led to proliferation of the digital platforms with webinars and meetings being done virtually. He also stated on the role of pharmacist, patient data management and the multiple options available to feed patient prescriptions and do its audit through digital empowerment.
“We understood digital is part and parcel of our industry and hence we are all learning and are updating ourselves to take this as opportunity and use for our business & also for the patients welfare,” concurred Mr. Mr. Jayaseelan.
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