Ranbaxy and its Japanese parent Daiichi Sankyo to learn from each other

Ranbaxy is targeting Rs 13,000-13,500 cr in sales for 15 months ending March 31, 2014

Ranbaxy Laboratories and its Japanese parent, Daiichi Sankyo, are going through an exchange programme to enhance skills and capabilities.

As part of the programme, executives from Daiichi Sankyo visited Ranbaxy’s facilities in Mohali and Mumbai during 2013. Similarly, representatives from Ranbaxy are working in the innovator company’s Japan and Germany factories, Arun Sawhney,  Ranbaxy’s chief executive and managing director, said in an email communication.

“One way to enhance skills and capabilities at Ranbaxy is through exchange of best practices with Daiichi Sankyo… during the year, we welcomed colleagues from Daiichi Sankyo Japan who came to India to work at our corporate office, R&D, Mohali and Mumbai locations. At the same time, colleagues from Ranbaxy are now working in Daiichi Sankyo in Japan and Germany under this exchange programme,” said Sawhney, while reflecting upon the challenges faced by Ranbaxy in the recent past and its plans for the future.

The exchange programme would continue across various functions and operations, he added.

Troubled background
The exchange programme between the two entities assumes significance mainly because Ranbaxy was faced with serious trouble in its largest export market — the US. While key facilities of the company — in Dewas (Madhya Pradesh) and Paonta Sahib (Himachal Pradesh) — were already barred from supplying medicines to the US, Ranbaxy’s new factory in Mohali (Punjab) with state-of-the-art infrastructure also faced similar enforcements by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) during September 2013. This was a major blow for Ranbaxy, which was trying to set things right having paid a $500-million penalty to the US authorities earlier in the same year to settle long-pending issues as well as charges of fraud against the company.

“Year 2013 was, without doubt, the most challenging year for Ranbaxy,” Sawhney said, while appreciating his team’s strength and determination to navigate and stay on course. He added FDA’s import alert barring supplies from the company’s Mohali facility to the US was “a big setback” and “something we (Ranbaxy) did not anticipate”.

‘Global landscape changing’
“The global pharmaceutical landscape is changing and we have to change with it. The expectations of regulatory agencies all over the world are increasing and clearly, we have to continue to raise the standards of our processes to be ahead of these changes,” Sawhney noted.

Ranbaxy is targeting Rs 13,000-13,500 crore in sales for 15 months ending March 31, 2014. The company had set a target of Rs 12,000 crore for January-December 2013 but is changing its financial year to April-March.

Although Sawhney has not given any clear indication about completion of ongoing consent decrees or resumption of supplies to the US from its Indian factories, he said India would continue to be the focus for the company.