India is a strategically important market for Optima and this is why we are increasing our footprint here

Optima recently acquired the Global Competence Centre (GCC) of Pune-based Eckstein Engineering — a strategic move to significantly enhance Optima India's engineering, manufacturing and service capabilities. In an exclusive interaction, Stefan König, CEO, Optima, and Christoph Müller, Managing Director, Optima, share details about the company's three-decade journey in the pharma sector and its expanding footprint in India. They also delve into Optima’s focus on delivering end-to-end turnkey solutions, advancing sustainability goals, and leveraging India's distinct market dynamics, with Lakshmipriya Nair

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Can you take us through Optima’s evolution? And, what are the major transformations that the pharma and biotech industries have seen since Optima's inception?

Stefan König:

The Optima story in pharma started about 30 years ago. At that time, it was mainly about syringe filling with high quality results. Then there was rapid development in requirements - regulations emerged, quality standards increased, and 100% IPC weight control became essential.

The next major shift was the growing importance of isolators. We addressed this by acquiring a company specialised in both filling machines and isolators. Various containers gained prominence, like cartridges, which have become significant in recent years, while ampoules have declined in usage. Now we're in a phase with many new therapies emerging - biobased pharmaceuticals, weight reduction medications, cell and gene therapies, etc.

For us, this means delivering complete turnkey lines is the best way to support our customers.

Can you share more about Optima’s journey in India?

Christoph Müller:

We entered the Indian market with our own setup in 2011, so we've been operating here for quite some time. We started with a classical sales approach with just one person. This person, Akshay Chikodi, is now the Managing Director of Optima Machinery India.

Over the years, both fortunately and through the hard work of our teams in India and Germany, we've managed to sell equipment to the rapidly growing Indian market. We've also been able to grow alongside the company. Beyond pure sales activities, we've expanded to offer comprehensive after-sales services to our customers.

So, who are your major clients at Optima?

Müller:

We have a broad base of clients here in India and I think one big milestone is that we just recently sold our first turnkey line to the Indian market.