Risk is an inherent part of the pharmaceutical and healthcare business, as these allied industries continues to take on old and ever-evolving threats. In the quest to effectively deal with increased operational complexities and market fluctuations, these companies are drawing up extensive risk mitigation strategies.
To discuss the risks facing these companies, how they impact business and the best practices to counter potential threats to business continuity, senior leaders from India’s pharma and healthcare industries came together for a discussion as part of the Forbes India Risk Management Series, held in Mumbai in association with HP. These leaders included Ranjana Pathak, global head – quality, Cipla; Jayant Dwivedy, chief operating officer, USV; Ashish Vohra, head of ethics and compliance, South Asia, GSK; Joy Chakraborty, chief operating officer, PD Hinduja Hospital; Nimish Thakkar, chairman and managing director, Zuvius Life Sciences; Vernon de Sa, director – medical affairs, clinical compliance and governance at Saifee Hospital; and Kalpesh Jani, senior security advisor at HP.
Panelists were unanimous that for the pharma and healthcare sectors, the biggest challenge is that of compliance, adherence to procedures, meeting the expectations of regulators such as the state health department (for hospitals) and the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for pharma companies exporting to the US.