K. G. Ananthakrishnan, MSD Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd.
Release Date: 2011-05-06
While your appointment as Managing Director was not a long time ago, you immediately faced the big task to oversee one of the most complicated corporate mergers the local Indian drug industry has seen in recent years. How challenging was the integration of Fulford and Organon for you?One of the fundamentals we have kept our focus on, was our customers and ensure business continuity. This integration also provided us broader range of portfolio to serve our customers. This was truly a winning combination.
Before we completed the integration of Fulford and Organon, we already faced a second integration with MSD or Merck in India. Any integration is of course a challenging exercise. As long as it is done with fairness and keeping the larger objective in mind, I think it will all go well for the organization. There were challenges with portfolio management, people issues, relocations, etc. But overall, I am very pleased that we have been able to stay focused on our customers and keep the best talent within the organization during both mergers.
This was one of the fastest mergers in terms of integrating the teams. As from last April, we are operationally integrated, working as one company, one team and one culture.
For MSD, the plan is now to have 25% of global turnover coming from the emerging markets by 2013. How important is India within this context?
India is a very important market for MSD from an emerging market perspective. The very fact that this market is growing between 14 and 15%, and is expected to continue this growth for the next 5 years, makes this inherently a very attractive market.
There are several dynamics within this market, which testify that this growth will take place, such as the diseases landscape, rising income levels, increase in awareness, better infrastructure, and emergence of several health insurance. All this is going to influence the growth of healthcare in general, and the pharmaceutical industry in particular, in India.
A large country such as India also has a great opportunity for Merck and MSD to bring our products, services and vaccines. This will enable us to make an impact on the healthcare and the unmet medical needs of India.
MSD India for example operates in the diabetes space, where we launched the DPP-4 inhibitors Januvia and Janumet 3 years back. We have brought these products to India at a very responsible price point, and have established a leadership position in this therapeutic area today. We not only provide state of the art therapies but also supplement and complement with patient support programs. We are partnering with Public Health Foundation of India and Dr.Mohan's Diabetes Research Foundation to roll out evidence based management of diabetes to physicians across the country. In my view, this is our humble contribution to help manage this important disease in India,
A second example is cervical cancer, 27% of the global burden is in India. This is one cancer which is preventable, and we have a vaccination available today. Bringing in Gardasil and creating awareness for the disease, is going to help reduce the devastating mortality rate of 75,000 women per year. MSD has been fortunate to bring in products to address the unmet medical need in this area.
In addition to being a market for Merck products in India, India also offers a number of other opportunities for Merck. These include innovative partnerships for research & development, manufacturing etc. A recent example is the announcement of the Merck & Co. Inc. and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Sun Pharma) partnership for innovative branded generics for the Emerging Markets.
I truly believe that there is a lot to this equation of Merck for India (via launch of global products) and India for Merck (via partnerships which benefit the Merck Emerging Markets / Global Markets).
Bringing in MSD’s global products clearly contributes to your operations here, but the entire global portfolio is not present in India yet. How do you see the launch strategy for MSD in India for the coming years?
We will evaluate every single product that is available in the global portfolio. If it has a specific purpose in this particular country, and if it meets a specific need in this country, we will be launching that product here. MSD has in fact launched 6 new products over the past half year in India , with examples of Nasonex, Singulair, Noxafil, Tredaptive, Dinmek and RotaTeq. We are in-fact lucky to have the opportunity of having the best pipeline and in-line products globally available to address the needs of India's patients and will make every effort to launch them in a systematic and strategic manner.
According to the IMS ranking, MSD is currently a top 30 company in India. You have publicly stated that it is your ambition to enter the top 5. What are going to be the main growth areas to reach this position?
Currently, MSD operates in diabetes, cardiovascular, women’s health, dermatology, respiratory, vaccines, allergies, and so on. We thus have a broad therapeutic spectrum, and roughly 72 brands at this particular point in time. The advantage of the integration has been to get a good footprint in India, with presence in slightly bigger geographies with a stronger portfolio. We are predominantly present in the urban and semi-urban areas, and see significant opportunity to grow our portfolio further.
In addition to this, as mentioned before, there are several global brands that have not yet been launched in India. Launching some of these in India will enable us to bring value and make a difference where appropriate. This is going to be a second significant proportion of our growth.
The third component of future growth is our pipeline. MSD has several products in its pipeline that are due to come out between 2012 and 2014.
It is also worth mentioning that our primary focus is organic growth, because we want to optimally capture the value of our portfolio of products first. Such organic growth can be built from within our own capabilities, but additionally can also be leveraged on capabilities built through partnerships. For the diabetes portfolio for example, we have recently entered into an agreement with Sun Pharmaceuticals to expand the reach of our molecule.
Why was Sun Pharmaceuticals chosen for the co-marketing joint-venture?
Sun Pharmaceuticals has a significant presence in the diabetes segment, extensive customer relationships, a good reputation and strong brands. We therefore saw this as a strong partner to partner with. This was done specifically in the interest of diabetes patients in India, looking at the proven benefit that sitagliptin and sitagliptin plus metformin have shown in India.
For vaccines, you have already taken the 9th position in the market. Many of your products are market leaders in their niche, such as Pneumovax, Gardasil and RotaTeq. How do you explain the success of these products here in this market?
Government is now slowly trying to focus more on preventive medicine. MSD is fortunate to have been a leader in vaccines discovery and marketing throughout the world for a significant time. We therefore bring in a thorough understanding and capability in vaccines.
While everyone knows about breast cancer, the awareness level of cervical cancer, for example, is very low in India today. 27% of global disease burden in India is a huge disease burden for the country. Our approach is thus to try to improve the awareness of cervical cancer. Promoting detection and treatment of the problem through vaccination is the way we approach the market. It is not just about promoting Gardasil, but rather about promoting a fully augmented service for the management of cervical cancer, which includes the three pillars of education, screening and vaccination.
For diabetes, in turn, we went farther than the launch of our products Januvia and Janumet alone. We have, for example, set up a call center in Hyderabad, we provide counseling service.. To manage diabetes problem, drugs are only one component of disease management, if we are able to address other components like diet and exercise counseling , patient outcome will be far more superior. In every therapeutic area we operate, we approach the market with extraordinary patient centricity.
At the primary care physician level, there was a gap in terms of evidence-based management of diabetes. We henceforth collaborate with the Public Health Foundation of India, and Dr.Mohan's Diabetic Research Foundation and are rolling out a very systematic IDF-recognized training program for the primary care physicians, on evidence-based disease management of diabetes in India.
You mentioned an increasing government focus on preventive medicine. Do you feel that the government support is sufficient as it is today?
We must acknowledge that government is trying to make an effort towards bringing focus on not only acute diseases, but also on chronic and preventive medicine. Are we in the best situation today? Certainly not. But the fact that the government has identified the key areas and begun to address it, is a very positive move forward.
With 60% of the Indian population residing in the rural areas, this is a market that is hard to ignore. MSD, however, has not tapped into this potential. How do you see this scenario in the future of MSD in India?
This is an exciting area, because we have seen that the rural areas form a significant share of the overall growth of the pharmaceutical industry in India. While we have not ventured into this market, we have planned a number of pilots to test our strategy. Once these are complete, we will be able to take a decision on the next steps to be taken.
You have also set up a research facility to investigate whether heat-stable vaccines could overcome some of the logistical issues in India’s climate. Do you see this as the future to solve the distribution problem, or possibly a temporary solution?
MSD and the Wellcome Foundation have set up a joint-venture for vaccine research in India. The whole purpose of this not-for-profit business venture is to develop vaccines for the developing countries. One of the first projects that is going to be taken up by these laboratories is indeed the development of such heat-stable rotavirus vaccine. Being able to develop such vaccine is going to address one of the most significant distribution challenges in this country.
MSD has also formed R&D tie-ups with local players such as Piramal and Orchid. To what extent can their R&D strengths be leveraged to contribute to the global innovativeness of MSD worldwide?
MSD has always believed in growing through partnerships, and there are indeed significant strengths and capabilities within India’s local players. If we are able to join these capabilities with our R&D capabilities, it is going to result in a strong win-win partnership. We are very open to such type of collaborative approaches. The most recent tie-up in that sense has been the agreement with Sun Pharmaceuticals on the development of innovative branded generic formulations in India.
In your view, has the R&D strength of local players changed over the years, as India moved up the innovation ladder?
Indian pharmaceutical companies have acquired significant capabilities over a period of time. There are several innovative projects that are being done locally, innovative combinations of products and delivery technologies to name a few. From a chemistry and formulation development point of view, there is a lot that can be leveraged out of India. This is also exactly the reason why MSD decided to forge some of these partnerships.
The growth of the Indian pharmaceutical industry and the many opportunities for India in general, has resulted in very high attrition rates in terms of human capital. How can you attract and retain the best and the brightest, without losing your people to the competition?
In an economy that is growing at such high pace, this is undoubtedly a challenge. At MSD, we believe in creating a work environment which is exciting, and provides opportunities for people to explore their own capabilities. We try to create an environment where the employee engagement is at an optimal level. Through this, we try to attract talent into the company.
We also have very clearly defined career development plans, training programs for people to upgrade their skills, and cross-functional career opportunities. I am very fortunate to be part of MSD / Merck which supports developing talent in a planned and systematic manner. This has created international opportunities for some of my talented people.
What have you set to achieve with MSD India, before you move on yourself?
Our aspiration is to be among the top 5 players in India by 2015. Striving towards that goal will be the key focus. My focus area at present is to maximize organic growth opportunities. It is an aggressive growth plan, but I have very competent people to achieve this goal "Putting Patients at the center" in whatever we do.
Is there a final message for our readers that you wish to share?
India is an exciting country with significant opportunity for organizations to make an impact on healthcare.
We at MSD are making a humble attempt through our products and services to truly address the unmet medical needs in India, putting patient at the center
We believe in and live the quote by George W. Merck, a quote that we all have internalized as a part of our value system: “We try never to forget that medicine is for the people. It is not for the profits. The profits follow, and if we have remembered that, they have never failed to appear.”
| Company: | MSD Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd. |
| Position: | Managing Director |
| Country: | 印度 |