Healthcare – Pharma & Medical Devices Summit & Excellence Awards 2017 held in Mumbai

The event deliberates on key pertinent issues, challenges and opportunities in pharma and medical devices industry

Legal league Consulting recently organised the Healthcare – Pharma & Medical Devices Summit & Excellence awards 2017 in Mumbai. The event celebrated the growth and revolution of Indian healthcare industry, discussing and deliberating on some of the key pertinent issues, challenges and opportunities through focussed sessions with leading experts from the industry encapsulating their perspective, views and deep insight on the latest developments and trends in the field of pharmaceuticals and medical devices industry.

The summit brought together a congregation of more than 130 participants consisting of top echelons from pharma, medical devices companies and industry forums such as Abbott India, Johnson & Johnson, Lupin, Novartis India, Metropolis Healthcare, Siemens Healthineers, Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA), Indian Drugs Manufacturers’ Association (IDMA) and Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) etc.

Bithika Anand, Founder and CEO, Legal League Consulting in her welcome speech said, “The sheer size of the healthcare industry and its effect on allied sectors like pharma, medical equipment and devices, clinical research, medical e-commerce, medical tourism, medical insurance, healthcare IT and software, made it as our next choice for the theme of the summit. With the summit, we move one step further towards our vision to blend the legal sector with other sectors of the economy. In every economy, a sound and developed legal sector ensures that development in business is in consonance with legal compliances and any repercussions associated with non-compliance are avoided.”

Ameera Shah, MD (Metropolis Healthcare) inaugurated the summit as the chief guest and Pravin Anand, Managing Partner (Anand and Anand) and Dr Annurag Batra, renowned media personality delivered key note addresses. The industry veterans recounted their experience of growth and success with the audience, echoing the immense opportunities for entrepreneurs and professionals in the pharma and medical devices sector.

The sessions commenced on a high note with Anand Desai, Managing Partner (DSK Legal), Suhail Nathani, Managing Partner (Economic Laws Practices), Kaizad Hazari, Head Legal & Corporate Affairs (GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals) and Dr Raja B Smarta, MD (Interlink Marketing Consultancy) taking the stage as the panelist of the inaugural session, Pharma Vision 2010: Bridging the Gap. They shared their holistic views on the recent policies and government initiatives aimed at establishing India into top five pharma innovation hubs by 2020, key trends and current and future opportunities in the healthcare industry and how India can make the most out of it.

Session 2 on Innovation, Drug Access & Pricing, consisted of panelists — Aarthi Sivanandh, Partner, J Sagar Associates, Daara B Patel, Secretary General, IDMA, Ghanshyam Hegde, Director Legal, Abbott India, Dr Vivek Mittal, Head Legal, Lupin, Tapan Pati, Director & Senior Legal Counsel, Johnson & Johnson and Neha Mishra, Senior Associate, Gaggar and Partners. The session constituted discussions on the issues of rising cost of patented and breakthrough medicines and the effectiveness of recently introduced regulatory mechanism such as Drug Price Control Order and the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority to deal with the issue of affordability and availability of medicines.

Session 3 on Medical Devices Industry: A Fostering Hub for Domestic Innovations & Challenges, had Dr Anil Pareek, President, Medical Affairs & Clinical Research, (Ipca Laboratories), Dr Milind Antani, Partner & Head – Pharma, Life Science & Healthcare Practice; Head – Social Sector Practice, Nishith Desai Associates, Vivek Padgaonkar, Director – Project & Policy, OPPI, Dr Subhash C Mandal, Chairman – Regulatory Affairs Division and VP, The Indian Pharmaceutical Association and Kriti Sharma, Senior Commercial Counsel (India), Smith & Nephew on the panel. They discussed on burgeoning industry of medical devices in India and the nuances, possible impact and opportunities expected by the upcoming Medical Devices Rules 2017.

Session 4 of the summit, ‘Digitisation of Healthcare’, embarked with a special address by Sandeep Saxena, CEO (Dr Batra’s Healthcare). The panelist, Vivek Tiwari, CEO & Director, Medikabazaar, Debolina Partap, General Counsel and VP (Legal), Wockhardt, Dhiroj Barad, Head Legal & Company Secretary, Siemens Healthineers,  Javin Bhinde, Founder and Director, SynCore Consulting Group and Kunal Thakore, Partner, Talwar Thakore & Associates, deliberated on the topic of health technologies and how they can bridge the gaps in the medical challenges like unequal access, poor quality and rising costs faced by the industry. Partap highlighted the importance of consumer data privacy.

The fifth session, ‘Investment Curve and the road ahead,’ focussed on the Indian Healthcare Investment landscape. Jayanta Banerjee, Managing Partner, ASK Pravi Capital Advisors, Alekh Dalal, Ex – Director, Carlyle Group, Founder, One Thirty Capital, Amar Merani, MD and CEO, Xander Finance, Amit Chander, Partner, Baring Private Equity Partners, Nishant Singh, Partner, Indus Law Firm and Ritika Ganju, Partner, Phoenix Legal, shared their views on how India is gradually becoming a green spot for healthcare investments across the globe and the opportunities it offers to all the stakeholders.

The sessions concluded with closing remarks from Ashish Prasad, Partner Economic Laws Practice.

Ranjit Shahani, VC and MD, Novartis India inaugurated the Excellence Award ceremony with a special address. He emphasised on the importance of convergence of technology and healthcare industry together and how technological breakthroughs in R&D, treatments, data collection are revolutionising structure and organisation of the entire medical field.

The awards were presented by Ranjit Shahani, Dr Lalit Bhasin, President, SILF & Bar Association of India and Manjula Chawla, Founder & Partner (Phoenix Legal). The felicitation ceremony celebrated the spirit of achievement and honoured distinguished business leaders, policy makers and other key stakeholders in Indian Medical Devices & Pharma Industry for their unmatchable contributions.

The winners in pharma industry category were: Abbott India – Leading Pharmaceutical Company; Eisai Pharmaceuticals – Leading Green Pharmaceutical Company; Pulse Pharmaceuticals – Excellence in Product differentiation & Innovation; GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals – Excellence in CSR initiative; Medikabazaar – Excellence in E – healthcare initiative; Koye Pharmaceuticals – Emerging leader in pharmaceutical industry; Schott Kaisha – Exceptional Contribution to the pharma industry; Wockhardt – Excellence in Research & Development.

The winners in Medical Devices Category were: Smith & Nephew Pvt. Ltd – Outstanding contribution to the Medical Devices Industry; GE Healthcare – Leading Medical Devices Company; S.S. Medical Systems Pvt. Ltd – Excellence in Innovation in the Medical Devices Industry; Siemens Healthineers India – Excellence in Global Expansion; Martin & Harris – Excellence in Business Innovation; 3M Capital India – Excellence in Research & Development in the Medical Devices Industry; DiponED BioIntelligence LLP – Emerging Leader in the Medical Devices Industry.

Vivek Tiwari, CEO and Director, Medikabazaar, said, “The summit was organised well with a panel of distinguished and experienced speakers. The inaugural and key note addresses were informative and relevant to the industry challenges and opportunities.”