The 15^th and 16^th of February saw the Global PHT Expo & Summit taking place at the Hyatt Centric in New Delhi, India.

Through Global PHT Summit, it was for the first time that the pharma, healthcare, and technology veterans, pioneers, and professionals converged on the same platform to impart their knowledge on the best & futuristic PHT practices. The theme of the event was Innovation, Advanced Technology, Current Challenges & Opportunities in Pharma & Healthcare Industry under which a series of presentation sessions and panel discussions were held related to pharma trends, APIs, policy reforms, AI, metaverse, current regulatory trends and the direction of pharma and drug discovery. The sole purpose of the conference was to highlight the need to develop focus of the Indian pharma industry from majorly developing generics to marking its presence for innovation for the development of new products. Professionals from across the globe participated which includes India, the USA, UAE, Israel, Indonesia, Australia, and Canada among others. Both days were highly productive and enlightening experiences full of energy and enthusiasm.

As the media partners of the event, PharmaShots spoke to Dr. Jagadeesh Babu Rangisetty, Dr. Upendra Nagaich, Dr. Y.K. Gupta, Dr. Anthony Melvin Crasto, Dr. Dhileep Krishnamurthy, Dr. Joe Armstrong, Dr. Adel Djalal, Dr. Chris Senanayake, Dr. Gopal Sirasani and many other renowned speakers present at the conference. The videos of the conversation will soon be released on our YouTube channel. Find out the key takeaways from this Global PHT Conference.

DAY 1

Day 1 started in a traditional Indian style with the conference organizers and guests of honours lighting the lamp and reciting the Ganesh Vandana. After the auspicious start, the chairman of global PHT – Dr. Jagadeesh Babu Rangisetty (CEO – Biophore India Pharmaceuticals, India), and the convenor Dr. Upendra Nagaich (National Secretary – SPER, India) gave the conference opening remarks. Dr. Y.K. Gupta (President -AIIMS – Bhopal and Samba Jammu) and Dr. Anthony Melvin Crasto (Advisor – Africure Pharma), were the guests of honour for the event. The speakers shared their thoughts on why attending the Global PHT conference was relevant for every person present in the room. Some of their thoughts are:

Mr. Mekala Rao (Chairman – Technology Global PHT Expo & Summit – 2023 and President – Atachi Systems, USA) – “motivation to attend Global PHT is to understand the cultural gap in the production of innovative medicine, healthcare systems between eastern and western world. Innovation is not happening the way it is expected to happen, so we need to work together. We are all in one game for one greater cause.”

Dr. Y.K. Gupta – “innovation is the need of the day and the disconnect between industry and academia has to go away”

Dr. Upendra Nagaich – “these conferences are the need of the hour so that we can meet, interact, and exchange ideas and thoughts with people whom we consider as the pioneer in one or the other field or they are the innovators in their respective fields”

Dr. Dhileep Krishnamurthy (Executive Advisor for Biotech, CRAMS, and Generic Industries in USA, India & China) – “Based on my experience I see that we have a lot of money and great opportunities in India, but we don’t want to take the risk. Unless you take a risk, you cannot innovate.”

After these great words by leaders, the guests of honour inaugurated the exhibition hall by cutting the ribbon. The exhibition hall provided an open platform for people to interact and discuss the potential areas of working together for innovation.

Moving forward was the Keynote Address from two prominent speakers:

1. Dr. Chris Senanayake (CEO TCG Green Chem and CSO TCG Life Sciences)

Dr. Chris shared his views on the Impact of Process Chemistry in Healthcare Sciences. As a renowned chemist, Dr. Senanayake discussed the need to adopt green chemistry in the process of drug development for cost reduction, timely innovation, and generating less waste than the standard process.  The expertise and capabilities of TCG GreenChem were also highlighted along with TCG’s Continuous Flow Chemistry Lab (CFL) Platforms.

2. Mr. Mekala Rao

The topic discussed by Mr. Mekala was Metaverse: Healthcare and its role in this Game changing Technology. In his talk, he elaborated on Atachi’s NGIMES (Next Generation Integrated MES) – the next-generation digitalization platform for manufacturing. Mr. Rao explained the core features of NGIMES and how it can remove the pain points of traditional MES platforms.

Following the keynote addresses, there was a CEO Panel Discussion on the Challenges and Opportunities in the pharmaceutical sector before and after COVID. The discussion was led by Dr. Joe Armstrong (COO – TCG GreenChem; Global Head of BD, USA) with a group of panellists including Dr. Jacob Eswarakumar (Founder & Chairman & CEO Krouzon-Pharmaceuticals, USA); Dr. Adel Djalal (MD- Alfa Diag, UAE); Dr. Jagadeesh Babu Rangisetty; Mr. Mekala Rao, Dr. Chris Senanayake and Mr. Manan Sharma (CEO, Devstringx Technologies, India). The speakers shared their views on the topic:

Dr. Jagadeesh Babu Rangisetty- “COVID has taught us so many things and the pharmaceutical company has gone through a lot of challenges and at the same time opportunities. According to me the main issue faced during the pandemic was the supply chain of pharmaceuticals. Realizing this the Government of India has initiated a program called the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme on some of these starting materials. I think the industry has adopted so quickly despite the different challenges that we had faced in terms of the supply chain and logistics. I think the opportunities are much more after the pandemic and I am sure we are gonna have a great time”

Dr. Jacob Eswarakumar- “One of the opportunities that I learned is to form a strategic relationship with the right organization because as mentioned together we can succeed”

Dr. Adel Djalal- “the world before and after the pandemic is not the same. We have seen a lot of challenges like a shortage of medication due to changes in demand. It not only impacted the supply chain but also the manufacturing of some molecules that were to be on the market soon, but they were delayed due to the focus on the covid. I feel the pharmaceutical industry or even the countries or governments were not ready for such a huge pandemic. So, to summarise I hope that the future will be organized to manage such crisis.”

Dr. Chris Senanayake- “globally we got extremely affected by the pandemic hit. That wake-up call changed the dynamics of the world. Before the pandemic, everybody didn’t care about too much and after the pandemic, I think human beings got very close. People realized that everybody needed to live and that the world is flat and without everybody’s help we cannot survive. I think we have realized that we need the technology, we need the move forward innovation and grow science at an exponential rate. The biotech got boom and the pharmaceutical industry got their respect back and now we feel much better.”

Mr. Manan Sharma- “as from the technology side I will start with the recently used cases like the government of India has already made it mandatory for around 300 drugs to have their barcode on the packaging to track and trace the information of the drugs. We can order drugs online and can have online consultations. So, I think technology has still a lot to cover in this industry”

Mr. Mekala Rao- “Anytime nature hits you it gives you enough warning in advance. There is no point in facing and then reinventing a medicine on the spot that’s tough and that’s what we went through. For some reason, we did not pay attention when the SARS virus hit Singapore and at that time, we should have continued the research so that we could have been better at it globally.  So, people have neglected it that’s what I would say.”

In the second half of the day technical sessions and panel discussions were scheduled in two different halls.

Session 1: Technical Session

Topic: Global Pharmacovigilance & Indian Perspectives

Moderator: Dr. Vijayabhaskar Annapareddy (State President – AP; IPGA-AP, India)

Panellists: Dr. Y Sridhar Reddy (Global Head – Pharmacovigilance Clinical Development and Medical Affairs, Hetero); Dr. Shubhadeep Debabrata Sinha (SVP, Medical Director & Head Hetero drugs); Dr. Addepalli Veeranjaneyulu (Director of Research & Professor – Pharmacology – Dr. D.Y. Patil Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research); Dr. Shraddha Bhange (Medical Director – EVERSANA).

Dr. Addepalli Veeranjaneyulu and Shubhadeep Debabrata Sinha introduced the session by describing the function of PV in the safety profiles of biosimilars. There was also discussion of the PV difficulties related to structure, nomenclature/ product name, manufacturing, and manufacturing variation challenges. To provide the audience with an Indian viewpoint, the presenters pointed out the country's requirements for biosimilar PV.   Dr. Shraddha then proceeded the discussion by describing the Eversana signal management and risk reduction system and how it affects patient safety. Dr. Y Sridhar Reddy provided the session's closing remarks before adjourning. The token of appreciation was then given to each speaker.

Session 2: Panel Discussion

Topic: Advanced Manufacturing Technologies

Moderator: Ms. Srividya Ramakrishnan (VP- API Process Engineering, Dr. Reddy’s Lab)

Panellists: Dr. Gurram Kishan (Founder & MD – Sravathi AI Technology Pvt. Ltd, India); Prof. Anil Kumar (Professor – IIT Bombay, India).

The session discussed different technologies currently being used in the manufacturing of APIs. Prof. Anil Kumar stated that technicians are extremely goal-oriented, and this generation of technicians does not do anything without a purpose. The session ended with a token of appreciation given to each speaker.

Session 3: Technical Session

Topic: Smart Manufacturing of Biologics

Moderator: Mr. Mahesh Bhalgat (COO- Syngene International Limited, India)

Panelists: Prof Anurag Rathore (Dept. of Chemical Engineering, IIT, India); Mr. Dharmesh Kharwar (Director- NCB Laboratories); Dr. Samir Vyas (Country GM – Agilent Technologies, India); Dr. Dilip Sawhney (MD- Rockwell Automation, India); Mr. Sethu Madhavan (VP- BBIL SDN, India).

The session started with speakers answering a fun activities and question. Prof. Anurag continued by presenting an overview of the next-gen. facility for manufacturing biologics in his presentation. Mr. Sethu then took over, describing the benefits of Pharma 4.0—a combination of AI, IoT, and Digital Twins—for pharmaceutical manufacturers. Dr. Samir discussed Agilent's new Agilent University idea as well as how the company is creating analytical solutions to enable the smart manufacture of biologics. Dr. Dilip and Mr. Dharmesh discussed the difficulties encountered in the biologics manufacturing industry in India.

Session 4: Panel Discussion

Topic: Chemistry in API Process Research and Development

Moderator: Dr. Rakeshwar Bandichor (Head, Chemistry - API – Process R&D, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, India)

Panellists: Dr. Rajender Leleti (CEO-ARING/MANE Group, India); Dr. Gaurav Sharma (Director-Integral BioSciences, India); Dr. Shashikant (Head-CRD (GM)- Ind-Swift-Labs., India); Dr. Antony Melvin Crasto.

Dr. Rakeshwar introduced the subject to the audience before to the session. Dr. Rajender highlighted the process of API R&D in his presentation followed by Dr. Antony explaining the need that every chemist to be exposed to a plant and that if a chemist can put the chemistry in the right place in the plant his job is done. Next, Dr. Shashikant and Dr. Gaurav went into more detail regarding process chemistry. At the end of the session, a token of appreciation was given to each speaker.

Session 5: Panel Discussion

Topic: Current Organizational Sentiment in the Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Industry I Policy Reforms required in the sectors

Moderator: Dr. Ashok Kumar Bhattacharya (Growth Enabler- Global Health Care Consultant)

Panellists: Dr. Vijayabhaskar Annapareddy; Dr. Bala Prabhakar (Dean, Shobhaben Pratapbhai Patel School of Pharmacy & Technology Management SVKM’s NMIMS, India); Dr. Indrashree Dusane (Hon. Professor & Occupational Medicine Physician – RCOH; Member of ICOH – SCOM & IAOH Training Faculty of AHA); Mr. Rohit Sharma (Associate GM Greytip Software, India); Mr. Arun Yadav (Co-Founder – MacroHire, India).

The discussion got off to a good start when Dr. Ashok stated that the Indian pharmaceutical business aims to move from a volume-based industry to a value leadership status and that to do so, the industry is seeking to reduce its dependence on imports. Dr. Bala went on to emphasize the importance of teaching professors and other academic personnel about the most recent developments so that they can incorporate them into students' thoughts from the very beginning. Dr. Indrashree, Rohit, and Arun presented the technological changes that must be made in order to improve the sector.

Session 6: Panel Discussion

Topic: Clinical Development of Biosimilars for the US and EU markets- recent regulatory updates, challenges and efficient solutions

Moderator: Dr. Deepa Arora (CEO- CLINEXEL Life Sciences; Clinical Development & Safety Monitoring Physician with Pharma Industry, India)

Panellists: Dr. Y Sridhar Reddy; Dr. Shubhadeep Debabrata Sinha

Dr. Shubhadeep stated during the discussion that clinical trials are crucial for the development of biosimilars and that India has led the way in this area for the past 15 years. He spoke on difficulties in India with regard to changing regulations and regulatory heterogeneity between nations, investigators' lack of knowledge of the use of biosimilars, and variability in clinical trial procedures. Dr. Reddy went on to discuss the challenges faced from the manufacturing POV. Each speaker received a token of appreciation when the session drew to a close.

Awards & Gala Networking Dinner

To celebrate the work done by the pioneers in their respective fields, Global PHT conducted an awards ceremony. The awards were presented by the Hon. Cabinet Minister of Social Welfare - Shri. Raaj Kumar Anand.

DAY 2

After an informative and fun-filled day 1, the second day started with a welcome address by Dr. Jagadeesh Babu Rangisetty and Dr. Gopal Sirasani. The session was then continued with keynote addresses:

1. Dr. Joe Armstrong

Dr. Joe presented on the Blockbuster Drug Januvia: An Innovators Perspective. Januvia is the FIC DPP-4 inh. class that received its FDA approval in Oct’2006 for T2D. Explaining the causes and consequences of elevated blood glucose, Dr. Joe showed the high throughput screening results received from Januvia for the treatment of the disease. He also included the award-winning green chemistry of Januvia and a small explanation of acceleration value for the development of the drug.  

2. Dr. Sumith Kularatne (Executive VP of R&D at Target Laboratories, USA)

Targeted Drugs for Cancer was the topic of Dr. Sumith’s talk. In giving a brief about cancer biology, he gave a comparative view of the conventional therapeutics, molecular-targeted therapeutics, and ligand-targeted therapeutics used for the treatment of cancer. Focusing on ligand-targeted therapeutics, Dr. Sumith highlighted different agents that have managed to reach clinical trials two of which had received FDA approval for the treatment of prostate cancer. Some results from the pre-clinical studies of Cytalux, EC0652/DUPA-SPECT, and EC1168/DUPA-SMDC were also highlighted in the presentation.

Session 7: Technical Session

Topic: Current Regulatory, QC, QA Trends

Moderator: Dr. Rajni Jha (Pharmaceutical Consultant, Trainer, Ex-Head of GMP & Regulatory Affairs – Naari Pharma, India)

Panelists: Ms. Nyela Haidery (Head of Regulatory- Axis Healthcare Consultancy, UAE); Dr. Rupali Paranjape (Founder & CEO at Blue Ocean Compliance, India); Mr. Dharmesh Kharwar; Dr. Mangesh Arvind Mantri (Head BD & Techno commercial Senior Advisor -ANTSTAR Global, India)

Dr. Jha introduced the topic of regulatory trends. She then turned the podium over to Ms. Nyela, who spoke about the overview of the Middle East and Africa. Dr. Rupali continued the discussion by highlighting the significance of audit and compliance, in particular the Blue Ocean compliance that is also covered in her book. Modernization, individualized medicine, and digitalization in pharmaceutical regulation were all discussed by Dr. Mangesh. Mr. Dharmesh briefed the trends in the export and import business before summarising the subject.

Session 8: Doctors Panel

Topic: Effects of Lifestyle interventions on Diabetes Remission

Moderator: Dr. Padma Rammoorthy (Director, Pledze LLC; Founder Director WellnessDoc LLP, Bengaluru, India)

Panelists: Dr. Anjali Nakra (Lifestyle Medicine Physician – Path to Health clinic, India); Ms. Sheela Krishnaswamy (Nutrition & Wellness Consultant, India); Dr. Narendra Tripathi (Head Quality Assurance Food Safety and Regulatory Affairs – Tirupati Wellness)

Dr. Padma initiated the discussion by providing an overview to the audience about diabetes and the factors causing an increase in its incidence. The discussion was then divided into two segments where Dr. Anjali gave details on how lifestyle interventions like sleep, stress, exercise, social connections, etc. and Ms. Sheela explained the role of nutrition, the kind of food we eat, and eating habits in increasing the susceptibility to diabetes. In the end, Dr. Narendra gave a presentation on recent trends in nutraceuticals and health supplements highlighting the key drivers for the growth of nutraceuticals in India.

Session 9: Technical Session

Topic: Pharma Trends & Digital Transformation

Moderator: Mr. Gurmeet Singh (Procurement Director Alfa Pharma GmbH, Germany)

Panellists: Mr. Jaweed Akhter Chowdhary (Practice Head – Samvardhana Motherson Health Solution Ltd, India); Dr. Varma S. Rudraraju (CEO-Aizant Pharma, India); Mr. Mekala Rao; Mr. Mohammad Shahbaz Alam (Founder & CEO – Shahbaz Pharma, India); Dr. Subrahmanyam Vangala (CEO & Founder – Reagene Biosciences, India).

The session discussed about how the ADR events of Curamax products in Uzbekistan impacted Indian products. A brief related to the SaaS Model – a digitalization of life sciences and how this digital transformation is reshaping the pharma industry was also presented to the audience. The last topic of the session included the use of AI and in vitro 3D human models to replace animal testing.

Session 10: Technical Session

Topic: Current Trends in Drugs Discovery & Healthcare

Moderator: Dr. Adel Djala

Panelists: Dr. Jacob Eswarakumar; Dr. Ashok Kumar Bhattacharya; Dr. Sameer Agarwal (Director – Head Medicinal Chemistry at Schrödinger, India); Dr. Gurram Kishan (Founder &MD – Sravathi AI Technology, India); Dr. Neelima Khairatkar Joshi (Founder & President – Promethean Drug Ideas, India).

Dr. Neelima opened the discussion by expressing her opinions on the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in the pharmaceutical industry for identifying novel targets, medication design, and recognising patients who might respond well. The topic of artificial intelligence (AI) in drug discovery, personalised therapy, diagnostics, and healthcare was then brought up by Dr. Adel. He also provided information about Alfa Diag's Cardio Explorer, which aims to classify CAD risk in a more precise manner. Dr. Gurram and Dr. Jacob, who spoke after them, spoke on Sravathi AI Technology and Craniosynotosis syndrome, respectively. In his lecture, Dr. Sameer provided a thorough explanation of Schrödinger's Drug Discovery Platform. Dr. Ashok summarised the conversation.

Session 11: Technical Session

Topic: Industry-Academia Interaction: A Pivotal Platform for Promoting Skills in Higher Educational Institutions (HEI)

Moderator: Dr. Bala Prabhakar

Panellists: Prof. Sarika Gupta (Staff Scientist – National Institute of Immunology, India); Dr. Rakesh Somani (Professor & Principal – Dy Patil University; President - APTI, India); Dr. Vir Vikram Sharma (Principal – School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Department of Pharmacology CT University, India); Dr. Shamim Bandey (Sr. Assistant professor Department of Zoology Higher Education Dept. J&K Government, India); Dr. Harvinder Popli (Director – DPSRU, India); Dr. Rupali Tashgaonkar (Principal, Tashgaonkar College, Mumbai, India); Dr. Vimal Rarh (Joint Director – Guru Angad Dev Teaching Learning Centre of MHRD Deputy Director – Centre for E-learning, SGTB Khalsa College, India); Dr. Rajni Jha

This session revolved around bridging the gap between the actual learning that the students get in academic centres and the skills required while performing as part of the industry. The need of providing digital, touch-based, and more hands-on learning experiences to the generation. The discussion also included the need of providing the skills to even the academic staff so that the knowledge can be transferred directly to the students.

Session 12: Doctors Panel

Topic: Current & Future Treatment of Oncology

Moderator: Dr. Anita Ramesh Chandra (HOD Saveetha Medical College & Hospital; Sr. Consultant Medical Oncology Apollo Speciality HCG Cancer)

Panellists: Dr. Sumith Kularatne; Dr. Deepa Arora; Dr. Abhinav Narwariya (Associate Consultant Medical Oncology BLK – Max Super Speciality Hospital, India)

Dr. Anita guided the conversation by asking about the prevalence of cancer and the panellists' opinions on how cancer treatment has changed recently. Dr. Abhinav spoke about how cancer treatment has improved with the addition of new cancer diagnostic methods such as CCT, MRI, PET Scan, Targeted Biopsies, and Dynamic MRI Imaging. Dr. Sumith discussed his thoughts on the development of biology's ability to target malignancies. Dr. Deepa discussed oncology clinical trials, bringing up master protocols, adaptive trials, umbrella studies, and basket trials. A token of appreciation was given to the speakers to conclude the session.

Day 2 ended on a high note with many new innovations discussed and collaborations formed. The conference paved the way for changing approaches in the life science sector including pharmaceuticals, clinical R&D, and biotechnology industry to introduce new sustainable practices with low environmental risks, eco-friendly manufacturing methods, developing new delivery systems and recycle packaging.

Global PHT served as a bridge to close the gap between pharma, healthcare and technology communities to address the global potential business that lies ahead and to begin taking steps towards creating a healthier, more prosperous, equitable, and sustainable ecosystem.

This two-day international conference was organized by Weece Events and its Diamond Partner Biophore, in association with the Society of Pharmaceutical Education & Research, and supported by Vivere Imaging, Zenara, Gehsss Pro, and Indian Pharmacy Graduates’ Association. The associate partners for the event were Vesca, HealthGambler, Xtreme Digital Solutions, and Integral Biosciences. TCG Lifesciences, TCG GreenChem, and Aizant served as silver partners. Additionally, the bronze partners were Atachi Systems, Devstringx, MacroHire, and Metrochem. The event's registration & lanyard partner was Pangene Biotech, while the travel partner was Weece Tour & Travel & PharmaShots as the official digital media partners of the event

For any queries related to future Pharma/ Healthcare conference feel free to reach milan@weece.events & tt@weece.events

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