What is the geographical reach of Saga?

Saga is a formulations company with a focus on the development, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of finished dosage forms (FDFs). We are present in over 50 markets and have several global accreditations including EU-GMP, TGA Australia, Health Canada, PIC/s and SAHPRA South Africa. We are not US-GMP yet, but we see a great opportunity for us in the US in the future.

Which segments of the life sciences industry are receiving considerable attention?

In India, two areas are growing quickly. One is the chronic segment. Over the past 5-10 years, the demand for treatments for diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancers has significantly increased. The second area is the wellness sector. Especially after Covid-19, people are focusing on wellness rather than illness and therefore on segments like vitamins and supplements.

What role does India play in providing affordable medicines to developing nations?

India's global impact as a supplier of affordable quality medicine is profound. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, many Indian companies were critical in supplying HIV drugs to Africa because they were able to bring down the costs of these treatments. Since then, India has been the most important source of affordable quality medications to the developing world. That said, the country has the largest number of US-FDA-approved API and formulation plants outside the US, and a significant number of EU-approved plants. Almost half of India’s exports go to the developed world, India thus plays an important role in serving more regulated markets.

How is India’s pharmaceutical industry working to bridge the gap between production volume and value?

As a nation, we consciously made the effort to understand and serve the gap present in both the domestic and international markets for quality affordable medications. This led to enormous results. The Indian pharmaceutical industry today generates around US$50 billion in revenue per year, and the CAGR has been over 10% for the last decade. Most trends indicate that by 2047, we are likely to scale from a US$50 billion to a US$500 billion industry at a CAGR of almost 10-11%. To put this into perspective, the Indian pharma industry took 75 years to go from zero to US$50 billion but may go from US$50 billion to US$500 billion in just 25 years. This is a massive growth trajectory but is definitely possible. In this journey, however, generics growth story alone is not going to be sufficient, and that is why there is the necessity for India to develop and manufacture innovative value-added products. Historically, India has been strong in small molecules, and we lag a bit in the areas of biologics. The Indian pharma industry needs to strengthen itself in the large molecules space as this is where we can add more value for what we are doing.

How are India’s government, industry and academic institutions collaborating to drive the industry forward?

In the last few years, India’s government has taken important steps toward promoting and supporting innovation. For example, the first PLI scheme was to support API production in India, as the industry had previously been dependent on imports. The second PLI scheme is geared more towards innovation, as the government saw the need to push for the development and manufacture of complex generics, specialty excipients and biologics. As we understand, the government has also planning to launch a series of steps to promote innovation. A research-linked incentive (RLI) scheme for the Indian pharmaceutical industry is one such step to help the industry focus on R&D and move up the innovation value chain. The IDMA is also focused on creating spaces to enable interaction between industry and academia, as academic institutions play an important role in developing new molecules and therapies as well as innovative ways of doing business. The IDMA today is on almost every platform that deals with policymaking with respect to the pharmaceutical space, and there is very open interaction between industry and government to take the industry forward.

What are your main objectives for Saga Lifesciences for the next year?

Moving forward, Saga will shift its focus from manufacturing to development, trying to create something innovative that helps to add value and differentiate us in the market. There are many opportunities domestically and globally, and we believe that Saga has a very bright future.