"We Want To Be Pioneers In Science"

In an exclusive interaction with BW Businessworld, Sanjeev Panchal, Country President and MD, AstraZeneca India talks about the growing pharma industry, plans for investment in India, expectations from the new drugs bill and new launches for the company  

- Shivam Tyagi

At what rate do you think the pharmaceutical industry is growing and what is AstraZeneca’s growth looking like, which areas are the levers for your growth?

As per the latest data, the pharmaceutical industry is growing by almost double digits, which is a good sign for the industry. And, for AstraZeneca we have been growing by more than 20 per cent. The Indian pharmaceutical market is clearly seeing some policy changes and we are also seeing innovative medicines coming to our country to help more patients. AstraZeneca specifically is ensuring that we bring innovative medicines as fast as possible and our growth actually is driven by bringing those innovative medicines to India.

For us the growth is coming from a wide therapy area, we are trying to become a more specialist organisation. We bring innovative medicines especially in oncology and previously we have been launching new products in lung cancer but now we are also bringing drugs for gastrointestinal cancers as well as for breast cancer. We have recently announced our entry into rare diseases with a new launch this year and we also got approval for a heart failure and chronic kidney disease (CKD) treatment.

As we go ahead we are also looking at biopharmaceuticals in respiratory and immunology. We have our biologics which are for severe asthma, and we also have products for heart attacks. 

Going forward, how are you planning to grow your product portfolios?