Getting Future Ready With Automation

Irrespective of a significant investment involved in it, the Indian pharma industry has no option but to embrace automation to achieve their global ambitions.

- Sachin Jagdale

Today, Indian pharma industry manufactures a range of medicines and a significant chunk of it is exported to various countries across the globe. As per a report by Equity Master, it ranks third in terms of volume and the 13th in terms of value, globally. Whatever so far the industry has achieved been attributed to various factors, of which, automation is perhaps the most significant one. The use of automation is no longer a choice but a compulsion for those who want to leave their footprints in the international markets.

Rapid strides towards automation...

In the early days of automation, it was confined to a shift from mere mechanical machines to electro-mechanical devices like motors. However, technological advances have redefined automation and taken it to unprecedented levels. Initially, automation was predominant in the manufacturing processes, however, today it encompasses areas like labs too and continues to expand.

Satish Varma, Managing Director, Fermenta Biotech says, “The last few decades have seen concerted efforts across various disciplines in the pharma/ biotech industry with respect to automation. We all are aware that the manufacturing industry has always been the first to embrace automation. This was solely due to its initial apparent merits based on increase in productivity, improvement in quality and moreover minimisation of waste which all led to a significant reduction in the overall cost. As our industry matured, over the decades, with increased exposure to earlier unknown benefits, more and more disciplines of the sector started adopting automation”.