Rethinking Biopharmaceutical Approaches

At around 3pm, I was wondering about the convention centre, spoilt for choice. On my program sheets, one particular talk available at that time stood out: “The business model of Piramal Healthcare”. Remembering her keynote address, my curiosity was piqued by how she and her husband managed to develop the company into what it is today.

Swati Piramal giving her speech

She spoke of the new opportunities that Indian firms are able to have, e.g. high quality research, good IT infrastructure and logistics, etc. With her confidence and energy, one could not tell that she had an 11 hour flight (as mentioned by the emcee) before coming over to the conference. One of the most striking things she said was that there is “no developing world vs developed world” and that way of thinking is something prehistoric. In fact, she urged people to transcend nationalism and work towards a more collaborative and global approach to research.

Similarly, the way Piramal Healthcare’s approach to therapy was different as well.  If current high dose, high cell killcount was a sledgehammer, the approach they adopted is one of a gentler measure: low dose and low toxicity over time, in the truest Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese medicine sense.

I am glad I dropped by for this talk as Swati Piramal introduced, in my opinion, a refreshing take on the industry.