Pharmacy

A group of world-class speakers were assembled for the event and featured Deloitte India as knowledge partner with Ranjit Shahani, Managing Director, Novartis India, as keynote speaker. Shahani in his keynote address described the pharma industry as seen from the eyes of an India-based multinational pharma company's CEO. Other speakers included Sumit Ghoshal, Deputy Editor, Business India, who discussed why the recent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) curb on pharma M&As need not be feared. He was followed by other speakers such as Dr Milind Antani, Head, Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences, Nishith Desai Associates. Attani elaborated on legal and Intellectual Property (IP) aspects on pharma M& as with another associate Simon Reis.

Further, Chris Barnett, a London-UK based Qualified Person (QP) who worked in India in the past depicted a positive picture of how Indian pharma have changed for the better but quality challenges remain to be tackled if Indian pharma is indeed to globalize. Dr Kiran Marthak, Member of Board of Directors, Veeda Clinical Research, discussed high profile M&As with CRO companies and summarized the net results to the CRO industry as these M&As progress with time. Vishal Gandhi, Vice President & Head, Life Sciences Banking, Yes Bank, highlighted on the various kinds of financing options available for upcoming and medium-sized life science companies in India at present, the associated pros and cons from a company's perspective and the near-term outlook for these opportunities. This was followed by a panel discussion that noticed the presence of Indian pharma companies in tier I and tier II cities, legal and advisory life sciences scenario, private equity investors in pharma, etc.