Date: Thursday January 21, 2010, to Friday January 22, 2010, 05:00PM
Event Type: Conference
Location: Sheraton; Mumbai, Maharashtra
Conference Info
In India, there is a critical need for a watchful and fully functioning pharmacovigilance system. It is fourth largest pharma market, and has more than half a million doctors. Thus chance of something going wrong is always there. Additionally, it is emerging as the hub for clinical trials.
Even if few patients here and there gets suffered due to ‘in-appropriate & wrong’ medicine, it causes huge harm to the credibility of the medical & healthcare system. Therefore there is an urgent need for a progressive and proactive pharmacovigilance strategy. And the time is now. As timely pharmacovigilance intervention will help identify such risks in shortest possible time
This conference will help you get answers to such issues and more
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Event: Medical Fair India Conference
Date: 12 - 14 March 2010
Venue: Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai, India
Event Profile
The Medical Fair India 2010 conference will bring together representatives from industry, accreditation, financial, and institutional bodies, and Government to address the issue of bringing quality healthcare to the masses while enabling a viable business for hospitals and medical companies.
Growing tremendously with increasing income, the liberalising trade regime and entry of global players in the country, India’s healthcare segment offers tremendous business potential for all players from India and overseas.
There is an opportunity for medical equipment companies to set up manufacturing bases in India to take advantage of the low-cost conditions. Additionally there are collaborative opportunities for companies and medical practitioners from all over the world.
Ideal conference for companies & individuals who are associated with either of these industries - Clinic, laboratory, and hospital administrators; Disinfection and waste management systems; Distributors and importers; Diagnostics; Doctors, surgeons, and para-medical professionals; Emergency / critical care equipment suppliers; Hospital – Infection control and Purchase departments; Hospital furniture manufacturers; Medical disposable manufacturers; Pathologists; Rehabilitation aids
Venue: Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai, India
Event Profile
The Medical Fair India 2010 conference will bring together representatives from industry, accreditation, financial, and institutional bodies, and Government to address the issue of bringing quality healthcare to the masses while enabling a viable business for hospitals and medical companies.
Growing tremendously with increasing income, the liberalising trade regime and entry of global players in the country, India’s healthcare segment offers tremendous business potential for all players from India and overseas.
There is an opportunity for medical equipment companies to set up manufacturing bases in India to take advantage of the low-cost conditions. Additionally there are collaborative opportunities for companies and medical practitioners from all over the world.
Ideal conference for companies & individuals who are associated with either of these industries - Clinic, laboratory, and hospital administrators; Disinfection and waste management systems; Distributors and importers; Diagnostics; Doctors, surgeons, and para-medical professionals; Emergency / critical care equipment suppliers; Hospital – Infection control and Purchase departments; Hospital furniture manufacturers; Medical disposable manufacturers; Pathologists; Rehabilitation aids
Event: Healthcare World 2010
Date: Thursday January 21, 2010, to Saturday January 23, 2010
Event Type: Tradeshow / Convention
Location: Bandra Kurla Complex
Mumbai, MAHARASHTRA IN
Healthcare World 2010, a medical exhibition is being organised by Express Healthcare.
Federation of Hospital Administration (FHA) and The Association of Hospitals (AOH) are the supporting associations for this tradeshow.
Manipal Hospital, Bangaluru, Jaslok Hospital, Mumbai, PD Hinduja Hospital, Mumbai, Dr LH Hiranandani Hospital, Mumbai, Kerala Institute Of Medical Sciences, Thiruvananthapuram and Max Healthcare are supporting Healthcare World 2010.
Hosmac is a knowledge partner and BOC, a member of The Linde Group, is associating with Healthcare World 2010 as a Green Zone Partner. Come and be a part of Healthcare World 2010
A great opportunity for knowledge gain, tapping into business opportunity and networking with the peer group companies and individual
Event Type: Tradeshow / Convention
Location: Bandra Kurla Complex
Mumbai, MAHARASHTRA IN
Healthcare World 2010, a medical exhibition is being organised by Express Healthcare.
Federation of Hospital Administration (FHA) and The Association of Hospitals (AOH) are the supporting associations for this tradeshow.
Manipal Hospital, Bangaluru, Jaslok Hospital, Mumbai, PD Hinduja Hospital, Mumbai, Dr LH Hiranandani Hospital, Mumbai, Kerala Institute Of Medical Sciences, Thiruvananthapuram and Max Healthcare are supporting Healthcare World 2010.
Hosmac is a knowledge partner and BOC, a member of The Linde Group, is associating with Healthcare World 2010 as a Green Zone Partner. Come and be a part of Healthcare World 2010
A great opportunity for knowledge gain, tapping into business opportunity and networking with the peer group companies and individual
Strong wind of change in pharma retail
It’s a revolution waiting to happen. May be its happening little late, but better than not happening at all
For long, we have been going to corner pharmacies and have had varied experiences. There have been umpteen numbers of stories that instead of trained chemists, pharmacies are actually being manned by completely un-trained individuals who have that much link with drugs as Taliban has it with peace! One of my most memorable personal experience has been of buying a serious Rx medicine from a Halwai (Sweet maker)…I mean a sweet maker masquerading as a pharmacist.
Not to forget the menace of counterfeit drugs. It is claimed that 20% drugs sold from pharmacists in India are fake. They are nothing but WMD (Weapon of Mass Destruction).
When we compare with China, which has approximately 2 lakh outlets for a domestic market of $15 billion, the Indian Pharma retail with approximately 5.5 lakh retailers for $8 billion market appears highly over-proliferated with complete fragmentation. Possibly this is the cause of various maladies ailing the pharma retail
Onset of organised pharma retail chains was supposed to address these issues. However, even after many years they have a limited reach. There share is around 3% of Indian pharma market. While in US, top three chains control 40% of the market
Situation may change for better if what AIOCD is attempting actually succeeds. All India Organisation of Chemists & Druggists (AIOCD) has 550,000+ chemists and 60,000 wholesalers as its members. This representative body of chemists is corporatising itself. In a way it is changing its colour. From a trade body with a ‘unionistic’ mindset to a corporate body with a professional mindset. Or think of it this way – 550,000 entrepreneurs coming together to become a part of a single company. And its name will change to AIOCD Ltd. with its corporate office at Mumbai
It will have a complex structure of a holding company with various subsidiaries at the state level. Individual Chemists would be the shareholders and the share capital would be created from their contribution. Creating the legal structure is probably the easier part. Making it work as corporate entity with a definitive revenue would be the tougher part.
The four key service areas for the company would be:
– Organized retailing
– Organized distribution services - single point end to end supply chain services
– Sales & marketing services
– Electronic stock & sales data – branded as AWACS (probably inspired by US!)
To offer these services with high standards, company is banking upon its financial muscle, strong relationship with the government and the industry, and the distribution might (besides 95%+ share of pharma market, close to 30% FMCG sales is controlled by this entity) and the distribution depth (presence right upto district / thesil level)
Company has stuck gold right at the beginning. It has finalised brand promotion alliance with Lupin (for OTC Products), Novartis (for OTC Products), Disney Baby Products, Amar Remedies (for FMCG Products), and Grass Root Nutrition (for OTC/FMCG products) to name a few. Under this arrangement AIOCD Ltd. will actively promote brands from these companies at the retail level
Besides they have finalised distribution alliance with Aventis, MSD, Sandoz, Lotus Sutures, and Amar Remedies. Under this arrangement, AIOCD Ltd. would be the single point contact for these companies for the distribution instead of them dealing with many individual wholesalers. This will help companies with optimal and adequate distribution of their products. AIOCD Ltd. would be able to provide this facility as it will take all the wholesalers under its fold.
To ensure that all these services are functional smoothly without any glitches need is to have a robust IT infrastructure. Towards this end, AIOCD Ltd. has partnered with Siemens for SAP implementation and with IBM as the technology partner. The central server would be located at Airoli (Navi Mumbai)
Probably the big ticket offering from AIOCD Ltd. is its PharmaTrac, branded as AWACS. It would monitor sales & stocks at each of the chemists in a minimal time. The key feature of this product would be speed and accuracy. It will reduce by half the time required to capture the data from each of the chemist, thus giving a more realistic & real time data to the pharma companies. Eventual aim is to provide day data trends to the pharma companies every 10 days. Accuracy would be ensured through personally supervised data collection. Eventually (by late next year), pharma companies would have sales data Rx wise, pin code wise and doctor wise, helping them to do better marketing planning
In the next three years, AIOCD Ltd. expects AWACS to have a revenue generation of Rs 250-300 crore.
The top management of the company led my Mr. Jagannath Shinde is assuring pharma companies that they would offer a thoroughly professionally managed set-up. Whether it will remain a cliché or a welcome new reality only time will tell.
In the meanwhile, for the people the key indicator of change would be to get to interact with a real chemist rather than a make believe one and that too a smiling face.
The task for AIOCD Ltd. is cut-out. For it the challenge is with itself
For long, we have been going to corner pharmacies and have had varied experiences. There have been umpteen numbers of stories that instead of trained chemists, pharmacies are actually being manned by completely un-trained individuals who have that much link with drugs as Taliban has it with peace! One of my most memorable personal experience has been of buying a serious Rx medicine from a Halwai (Sweet maker)…I mean a sweet maker masquerading as a pharmacist.
Not to forget the menace of counterfeit drugs. It is claimed that 20% drugs sold from pharmacists in India are fake. They are nothing but WMD (Weapon of Mass Destruction).
When we compare with China, which has approximately 2 lakh outlets for a domestic market of $15 billion, the Indian Pharma retail with approximately 5.5 lakh retailers for $8 billion market appears highly over-proliferated with complete fragmentation. Possibly this is the cause of various maladies ailing the pharma retail
Onset of organised pharma retail chains was supposed to address these issues. However, even after many years they have a limited reach. There share is around 3% of Indian pharma market. While in US, top three chains control 40% of the market
Situation may change for better if what AIOCD is attempting actually succeeds. All India Organisation of Chemists & Druggists (AIOCD) has 550,000+ chemists and 60,000 wholesalers as its members. This representative body of chemists is corporatising itself. In a way it is changing its colour. From a trade body with a ‘unionistic’ mindset to a corporate body with a professional mindset. Or think of it this way – 550,000 entrepreneurs coming together to become a part of a single company. And its name will change to AIOCD Ltd. with its corporate office at Mumbai
It will have a complex structure of a holding company with various subsidiaries at the state level. Individual Chemists would be the shareholders and the share capital would be created from their contribution. Creating the legal structure is probably the easier part. Making it work as corporate entity with a definitive revenue would be the tougher part.
The four key service areas for the company would be:
– Organized retailing
– Organized distribution services - single point end to end supply chain services
– Sales & marketing services
– Electronic stock & sales data – branded as AWACS (probably inspired by US!)
To offer these services with high standards, company is banking upon its financial muscle, strong relationship with the government and the industry, and the distribution might (besides 95%+ share of pharma market, close to 30% FMCG sales is controlled by this entity) and the distribution depth (presence right upto district / thesil level)
Company has stuck gold right at the beginning. It has finalised brand promotion alliance with Lupin (for OTC Products), Novartis (for OTC Products), Disney Baby Products, Amar Remedies (for FMCG Products), and Grass Root Nutrition (for OTC/FMCG products) to name a few. Under this arrangement AIOCD Ltd. will actively promote brands from these companies at the retail level
Besides they have finalised distribution alliance with Aventis, MSD, Sandoz, Lotus Sutures, and Amar Remedies. Under this arrangement, AIOCD Ltd. would be the single point contact for these companies for the distribution instead of them dealing with many individual wholesalers. This will help companies with optimal and adequate distribution of their products. AIOCD Ltd. would be able to provide this facility as it will take all the wholesalers under its fold.
To ensure that all these services are functional smoothly without any glitches need is to have a robust IT infrastructure. Towards this end, AIOCD Ltd. has partnered with Siemens for SAP implementation and with IBM as the technology partner. The central server would be located at Airoli (Navi Mumbai)
Probably the big ticket offering from AIOCD Ltd. is its PharmaTrac, branded as AWACS. It would monitor sales & stocks at each of the chemists in a minimal time. The key feature of this product would be speed and accuracy. It will reduce by half the time required to capture the data from each of the chemist, thus giving a more realistic & real time data to the pharma companies. Eventual aim is to provide day data trends to the pharma companies every 10 days. Accuracy would be ensured through personally supervised data collection. Eventually (by late next year), pharma companies would have sales data Rx wise, pin code wise and doctor wise, helping them to do better marketing planning
In the next three years, AIOCD Ltd. expects AWACS to have a revenue generation of Rs 250-300 crore.
The top management of the company led my Mr. Jagannath Shinde is assuring pharma companies that they would offer a thoroughly professionally managed set-up. Whether it will remain a cliché or a welcome new reality only time will tell.
In the meanwhile, for the people the key indicator of change would be to get to interact with a real chemist rather than a make believe one and that too a smiling face.
The task for AIOCD Ltd. is cut-out. For it the challenge is with itself
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Pharma Companies and Social Media: Forbidden Fruit or Passion Fruit
Nobody can stop the forward march of an idea whose time has truly come and not only has come but has already become an integral part of the ‘now’ generation. That is social media. It has become a huge psychological and social human experience
It has become the preferred mode of engaging, networking and building relationships among the individuals, institutions and organisations. So much so that it is being used by the corporates to connect with their various stakeholders and in some cases, also empowering them to create their own content and engage in conversations
If it is said that content is the king, then conversation is the queen! And social media helps in marrying both king & queen
Leading names in Social media are Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Linkedin. As per Nielsen Social Media survey (2009), 2/3rd of world internet population visits online communities and spends at least 10 mts on them everyday. And the time spent on these websites has increased 3 times the rate of overall internet growth. It has caught the fancy of both young and ‘old’ in equal measure. As per the Nielsen survey, people aged 35-49 is the fastest growing segment on Facebook. In the last year, Facebook has added twice as many 50-60 year old visitors (14 million) as it has 18 year olds. One third of Facebook audience is 35-49
If such is its power, then how can pharma industry remain untouched by this tidal wave? And more than that, like what any other powerful idea does, splits the industry into supporters and cynics. But as on date, it is the supporters seem to be having an upper hand. Few examples:
Pfizer
Pfizer, maker of the well-known drugs of Viagra and Celebrex, is exploring social by creating a social networking site that will bring together patients and clinical trial researchers. On this site patients will have the opportunity to confidentially post personal health information that will only be made available to researchers studying their particular condition. Trial sponsors can use the site to recruit patients and patients will have an opportunity to learn more about the studies that relate directly to them. Presently following 479 on Twitter, Pfizer has attracted 1425 followers with 72 tweets as on date (There are 479 people / bloggers which Pfizer is following & 1425 people / bloggers are following Pfizer)
Johnson & Johnson
The company's YouTube channel now has over 90 videos. Its corporate blog was built around a simple question that serves as its premise - 'everyone else is talking about our company, so why can't we?'
Videos are also based on human interest stories. For example, when Cindy pregnancy ran long, labor was induced and the baby suddenly began to bleed out from a rare and often undiagnosed condition. Fast action and an immediate blood transfusion saved baby Julia.
Novartis
It has gone on a different track. It has developed a community platform dedicated to Chronic Myeloid Leukemia or CML, which is an innovative Google-like mash-up that interacts with patients, patient groups, and healthcare professionals from around the world.
AstraZeneca US
AstraZeneca US tweets, though only outgoing & one-way communications has 266 following, 1613 followers and 1645updates. Also its product Symbicort has its own presence on YouTube called 'My Asthma Story’.
Bayer
It has probably the most creative and unique presence on the social media. It recently launched a new online community and blood glucose monitoring tool for young people living with diabetes in the United Kingdom.
The tool, named Didget connects directly into the youth's ‘Nintendo DS’ and rewards the user for building consistent blood glucose testing habits and meeting glucose targets. The Nintendo DS tool is supported by 'Didget World’, a password protected social network where kids can interact with other users and build their own profile. Based on the popularity of online 'gaming' with young people, this is an ingenious use of social media to help monitor a health condition.
As Head of Bayer Medical Care, Sandra Peterson says, “The Didget meter is a revolutionary development in healthcare management. Up until now, blood glucose monitors have been created with adults in mind
There are more such examples, like GSK which focuses on creating dialogue on pressing issues, Boehringer Ingelheim has gone more aggressive and made Twitter as part of its communication strategy to engage with its stakeholders, Roche went one step ahead and organised a ‘Social Media Summit’! In this they invited 29 diabetes specialists and bloggers with the intent to ‘listen & learn’ in the area of diabetic care
Even there is a social networking site only for cancer specialists. One can even use it for doing for online survey. Examples are galore and possibilities are immense!
Yet there are nay sayers. They are fearful of running afoul of USFDA regulations that govern the advertising and promotion of prescription drugs. They believe in the adage, ‘safety in caution’. With USFDA, already started the process of inviting industry and other stakeholders for hearing to regulate the communication on social media, they may not be able to avoid it for long. Though it would still require some monitoring as unsubstantiated user generated content may harm a company or drug reputation. It’s the regulatory and legal people who have major concerns.
Social media offers new opportunities to not only activate but also create enthusiasm. It allows one to be both publisher as well as marketers. That is one can use social media as PR tool (unpaid media) as well as a paid communication tool as well. People may not believe what you tell them but they definitely believe what they tell themselves. That’s the power of user-generated content.
There is also a strong financial logic behind using social media. In a world where every media is getting more expensive, the price of digital technology continues to fall and the differences between those two economies is growing. If novelty was a factor sometime ago, saving money is the stronger motivation this time
As some wag said, social media is like teen sex! It’s all around us but no one knows the exact width & depth of it. But it’s part of social conversation. Same is with social media. It’s a good conversation point, but a smart pharma marketer can encourage the right & relevant conversation
May be it’s time for Indian pharma industry to give it a first look
It has become the preferred mode of engaging, networking and building relationships among the individuals, institutions and organisations. So much so that it is being used by the corporates to connect with their various stakeholders and in some cases, also empowering them to create their own content and engage in conversations
If it is said that content is the king, then conversation is the queen! And social media helps in marrying both king & queen
Leading names in Social media are Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Linkedin. As per Nielsen Social Media survey (2009), 2/3rd of world internet population visits online communities and spends at least 10 mts on them everyday. And the time spent on these websites has increased 3 times the rate of overall internet growth. It has caught the fancy of both young and ‘old’ in equal measure. As per the Nielsen survey, people aged 35-49 is the fastest growing segment on Facebook. In the last year, Facebook has added twice as many 50-60 year old visitors (14 million) as it has 18 year olds. One third of Facebook audience is 35-49
If such is its power, then how can pharma industry remain untouched by this tidal wave? And more than that, like what any other powerful idea does, splits the industry into supporters and cynics. But as on date, it is the supporters seem to be having an upper hand. Few examples:
Pfizer
Pfizer, maker of the well-known drugs of Viagra and Celebrex, is exploring social by creating a social networking site that will bring together patients and clinical trial researchers. On this site patients will have the opportunity to confidentially post personal health information that will only be made available to researchers studying their particular condition. Trial sponsors can use the site to recruit patients and patients will have an opportunity to learn more about the studies that relate directly to them. Presently following 479 on Twitter, Pfizer has attracted 1425 followers with 72 tweets as on date (There are 479 people / bloggers which Pfizer is following & 1425 people / bloggers are following Pfizer)
Johnson & Johnson
The company's YouTube channel now has over 90 videos. Its corporate blog was built around a simple question that serves as its premise - 'everyone else is talking about our company, so why can't we?'
Videos are also based on human interest stories. For example, when Cindy pregnancy ran long, labor was induced and the baby suddenly began to bleed out from a rare and often undiagnosed condition. Fast action and an immediate blood transfusion saved baby Julia.
Novartis
It has gone on a different track. It has developed a community platform dedicated to Chronic Myeloid Leukemia or CML, which is an innovative Google-like mash-up that interacts with patients, patient groups, and healthcare professionals from around the world.
AstraZeneca US
AstraZeneca US tweets, though only outgoing & one-way communications has 266 following, 1613 followers and 1645updates. Also its product Symbicort has its own presence on YouTube called 'My Asthma Story’.
Bayer
It has probably the most creative and unique presence on the social media. It recently launched a new online community and blood glucose monitoring tool for young people living with diabetes in the United Kingdom.
The tool, named Didget connects directly into the youth's ‘Nintendo DS’ and rewards the user for building consistent blood glucose testing habits and meeting glucose targets. The Nintendo DS tool is supported by 'Didget World’, a password protected social network where kids can interact with other users and build their own profile. Based on the popularity of online 'gaming' with young people, this is an ingenious use of social media to help monitor a health condition.
As Head of Bayer Medical Care, Sandra Peterson says, “The Didget meter is a revolutionary development in healthcare management. Up until now, blood glucose monitors have been created with adults in mind
There are more such examples, like GSK which focuses on creating dialogue on pressing issues, Boehringer Ingelheim has gone more aggressive and made Twitter as part of its communication strategy to engage with its stakeholders, Roche went one step ahead and organised a ‘Social Media Summit’! In this they invited 29 diabetes specialists and bloggers with the intent to ‘listen & learn’ in the area of diabetic care
Even there is a social networking site only for cancer specialists. One can even use it for doing for online survey. Examples are galore and possibilities are immense!
Yet there are nay sayers. They are fearful of running afoul of USFDA regulations that govern the advertising and promotion of prescription drugs. They believe in the adage, ‘safety in caution’. With USFDA, already started the process of inviting industry and other stakeholders for hearing to regulate the communication on social media, they may not be able to avoid it for long. Though it would still require some monitoring as unsubstantiated user generated content may harm a company or drug reputation. It’s the regulatory and legal people who have major concerns.
Social media offers new opportunities to not only activate but also create enthusiasm. It allows one to be both publisher as well as marketers. That is one can use social media as PR tool (unpaid media) as well as a paid communication tool as well. People may not believe what you tell them but they definitely believe what they tell themselves. That’s the power of user-generated content.
There is also a strong financial logic behind using social media. In a world where every media is getting more expensive, the price of digital technology continues to fall and the differences between those two economies is growing. If novelty was a factor sometime ago, saving money is the stronger motivation this time
As some wag said, social media is like teen sex! It’s all around us but no one knows the exact width & depth of it. But it’s part of social conversation. Same is with social media. It’s a good conversation point, but a smart pharma marketer can encourage the right & relevant conversation
May be it’s time for Indian pharma industry to give it a first look
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