Category: Media

The recently concluded pharma trade show, Pharmac South 2024, in Chennai has established itself as a big platform for bringing together pharmaceutical manufacturers, marketers, suppliers of raw materials and contract manufacturers of the south Indian states to explore new opportunities.

In total, the trade show has helped in showcasing the manufacturing capability of the pharma companies in the MSME sector of Tamil Nadu as most of the IDMA members are operating small and medium enterprises.

According to M Radhakrishnan, head of Apex Laboratories and EC member of the TN IDMA, this trade show which was the 9th in series, helped a lot to extend the business network of the MSME Pharma and allied companies. The Expo had a participation of 147 exhibitors who included from pharmaceuticals, machineries, packaging and labeling, and other allied sectors. Various kinds of innovative products and services were an attraction to this year’s show.

Responding to queries from Pharmabiz, Radhakrishnan said, “Tamil Nadu pharmaceutical industry’s presence is predominantly in contract manufacturing. It is pertinent to mention that vast majority of the companies are in MSME sector in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and Kerala. Hence the Pharmac South is a very nodal event in showcasing the manufacturing capability of the industries in these states, especially of the MSME sector. Most of the members of the IDMA in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and Kerala are also small and medium companies.”

He said the expo was also a platform for technology and service providers in pharma to showcase their products and technology advancements which the user companies get to see and benefit. In every way it was beneficial to the MSME sector in pharma sphere. The proof is the increasing number of exhibitors year on year, he added.

J Rajamouli, chairman of the Telangana IDMA, who was present in the two days exhibition and seminars with his members from Telangana, said the trade show was a grand success with good participation of exhibitors and visitors. Further, the two days deliberations were very useful to the entrepreneurs, especially the discussion on the topic on New Schedule M. He congratulated the organisers for conducting a fantastic trade show like this.

Dr T Sathish of Tablets India and vice chairman of the TN IDMA said there were good responses this year from manufacturing companies, contract manufacturers and suppliers of various materials required for the industry. He said the MSME units in Tamil Nadu could build a wide network to increase their business in entire South India and explore a range of promising opportunities.

The pharma B2B event hosted by the Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association Tamil Nadu chapter (TN IDMA) every year in Chennai will be held at the Chennai Trade Centre on July 14 and 15 this year with participation of a wide range of stakeholders of the sector.

The business to business event ‘Pharmac South’ is the eighth in the series, but this year it coincides with the launch of the pharma cluster project (Tindivanam Pharma Park) of the Tamil Nadu government. The government on June 5 invited applications from the industry players for the allotment of land. More discussions on the project will be held at the seminars to be conducted as part of the Pharmac South expo, organizers informed.

While briefing Pharmabiz about the event, the chairman of the TN IDMA, J Jayaseelan said the expo is organized mainly to support the industries of drug manufacturing, API manufacturing, cosmetics and neutraceuticals to open up new market opportunities with the big players and pharma giants in the country. The event will showcase the latest innovations of pharmaceutical products, machineries, medical devices and new drug discoveries in addition to the display of latest industrial techniques. According to him, this year’s Pharmac South will be a unique platform for sharing knowledge, experiences, research & developments and other breakthroughs in the pharma sector for all the stakeholders in the industry. The trade fair will enable the MSME units in Tamil Nadu to reach out to hundreds of key industry stalwarts and potential customers from different parts of the country at one place.

Jayaseelan said the health secretary and the MSME secretary of the Tamil Nadu government are also part of this year’s Pharmac South expo, so that the participant exhibitors will get chances to share their concerns with the government. Further, the entrepreneurs who want to invest in the pharma park project at Tindivanam can interact with the project officials and clear their doubts.

In the presence of the government secretaries, this year’s pharma expo will be inaugurated at 10 am on Friday, followed by a seminar on sale strategies and B2B development will be held. In the afternoon, the motivational speaker, Swami Sukhabodananda from Benglauru will address the industry leaders and other participants of the event.

The chairman of the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) Dr. SV Veeramani will preside over the inaugural session.

Saturday, July 15, the program will start with a CEO Talk. A chief operating officer of a multinational pharma giant from Mumbai will deliver a speech on ‘how to make a successful B2B development in pharma’ at 10.30 am and followed by it a marketing conclave will be held. A seminar on exports will be held in the afternoon.

K Sivanandan, organizing secretary of the TN IDMA said more than 200 exhibitors have already booked their stalls and this year 7,000 visitors are expected from all the south Indian states. He said Pharmac South is the premier high-powered pharmaceutical, neutraceutical and contract manufacturing exhibition in south India.

Several new products were featured, ideas could be exchanged and effective business discussions were held between potential customers and visitors from all parts of south India in the pharmaceutical product expo that concluded in Chennai Trade Centre on July 15.

Most of the product exhibitors who attended the two-day pharma exhibition, Pharmac South, organized by the Tamil Nadu IDMA expressed satisfaction with the level of organisation of the event when Pharmabiz took the feedback of the participants from each booth set up at the hall.

According to industry sources, this year the trade show has benefited both the manufacturers and the marketers well because both parties could interact with their potential clients.

When a comment was sought from the TN pharma industry doyen and chairman of the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil), Dr SV Veeramani, he said, “When compared to the previous year’s show, this year’s exhibition has increased in multiple ways including number of stalls and visitors. Another major significant aspect of the event was that new products and technologies were largely showcased by the exhibitors which helped to attract more visitors. On the benefit side, we would like to say that the exhibition has brought good results to the Tamil Nadu pharma MSME sector, both for the manufacturers and the marketers’. He said the interest of the organizers, the curiosity of the visitors and the expectations of the exhibitors have increased so much to encourage them to attend future shows”.

Whereas, M Varadarajan, president of the Tamil Nadu MSME Pharma Manufacturers Association (TN PMA) said the event would have been more successful had it been conducted one week later because the mega pharma expo, iPHEX was going on in Hyderabad a few days before the Pharmac South started in Chennai. “Although July is the ideal month for a south Indian pharma show, as in October and November there will be bigger shows in Mumbai and Noida, this year’s expo was only ok. The success of the exhibition lies in the number of the visitors and potential buyers. We need new buyers, especially we expect them from the east and north-eastern part of the country where new formulation and API units are coming, as well as marketing companies are emerging in large numbers. However, in total this year’s expo was successful and improvement is there. We expect that the trade fair has helped the MSME pharma units in the state”.

A leading pharma marketer in Chennai, A Kannan, director of Hextar Pharma, said the Pharmac South expo has grown well in its level of organisation and it has substantially helped the pharmaceutical marketing companies in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. “We have visited more than 170 stalls showcasing different kinds of drugs and other pharmaceuticals, as well as we could see new manufacturers and different technologies. Besides, we had the opportunities to interact with industry colleagues from several states, meet entrepreneurs from different parts of the state in one platform and attend very good scientific sessions for business growth. There were also some motivational speeches and B2B discussions to strengthen our business. The event was useful for the existing marketers and the new entrepreneurs,’ he commented.

Out of the 170 exhibitors, only a few were newcomers but majority of the participants said they have been exhibiting their products in the Pharmac South trade show since 2014 when the event started for the first time. All of the participants were in elation because of the high turnout of visitors this year.

Sharing experience with Pharmabiz, R Swaminathan, managing director of ‘Dharma Scientific Products’ in Chennai, who was attending the event for the time said it was a great experience for him to participate in the two days trade fair organized by the Tamil Nadu drug manufacturers association. He said he got the opportunity to interact with formulation manufacturers and pharma marketers from almost all the states in India. He assured that he will set his stall in the expo next year too.

“Our company is the manufacturer of enzymes for the pharma industry. We took part in the Pharmac South for the first time and the exhibition has got us very good opportunities for interaction with so many clients. We got a very good response from the two days’ show. We will exhibit next year as well,” said Yatinkumar Wani, one of the directors of Biolaxi, a company located in Thane in Maharashtra.

Maninder Saini, an exhibitor from Baddy in Himachal Pradesh, who is the managing director of Healthwise Pharma, manufacturer of soft gelatin capsules said he was attending for the first time in a south Indian exhibition, but he got very good responses. He said he could arrive at good discussions with potential customers from the south Indian pharma industry.

But Doshion Pharma from Ahmedabad, a manufacturer of APIs and excipients, was also attending the Chennai pharma trade fair for the first time, and said they received responses less than what they expected. When asked whether the company will take part in the next expo in 2024, the representative of the company in anonymity said they will have to think about it twice.

Vaibhav Gupta, director of Casilica Dehumidifiers, a manufacturing company from UP for all kinds of machineries to pharmaceutical companies said he got a lot of queries and enquiries from visitors in his stall. He expressed the hope that he will get a good number of customers from south India. He was attending the expo for the first time.

Another manufacturer of dehumidifiers attended the exhibition was Sagar Air Pvt Ltd, from Hyderabad. While talking to Pharmabiz, its director TV Vishweshar said Tamil Nadu is a good market for their company and they have good number of customers in the state. However, he expects an increase in the number of customers from TN, Pondicherry, Karnataka and Kerala. The company was attending the expo for the first time.

The Tamil Nadu chapter of the Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association (TN IDMA) has decided to postpone the largest south Indian exhibition of pharmaceutical products and machinery, Pharmac South 2022, to July 8 and 9 due to the rising number of positive Omicron cases in the state.

However, stall booking will continue online without any interruption. Enquiries by customers and visitors are getting every day. This year is the seventh edition of the event in series, sources informed.

The trade show was scheduled to be held on March 14 and 15 this year at Chennai Trade Centre at Guindy following the gradual subsidence of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in early December last year. The event creates a strong platform for contract manufacturers and brand marketers.

“We are now forced to postpone the show to a further date, not too long. We have been getting enquiries for the last two years from exhibitors and visitors from across the country on this mega trade show on pharmaceuticals and industrial machineries. The exhibition is unique in the exposition of the pharma industry’s various products and services, and customers and industry partners from all the south Indian states meet together on these two days to know about innovative products and machinery, market trends, and opportunities. Taking note of the present situation, we have postponed the event to July,” said J Jayaseelan, chairman of the TN IDMA.

Pharmac South will explore the latest pharmaceutical innovations and new approaches that shape the Indian pharma industry. Manufacturers of formulations, APIs, intermediates, excipients, and allied products can exhibit and sell their products by reaching on to this platform organized by the Tamil Nadu pharma industry. This is a rare opportunity for the contract manufacturers and brand marketers of the south Indian states to develop their business said he.

Both the formulation and API units in Tamil Nadu are anticipating that the state government may announce its Tindivanam Pharma Park project in the coming budget session of the State Assembly which commences on April 6.

The cluster project is mainly to boost the small and medium enterprises (MSME) in the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical sectors and all the groundwork for the project has been fulfilled, said a senior officer from the State Small Industries Development Corporation (SIDCO).

“The project is almost finalized. 90% of the groundwork is over. The next step is the announcement by the CM and it may happen at any time in the coming assembly budget session. The work on the detailed project report (DPR) is already over, and last week the industry secretary called a meeting of all stakeholders, in which representatives of TN pharma industry, MSME secretary, and SIDCO officials attended. Final discussion on the project with participation of industry is also over.  Now everything is in the hands of the government who will announce the details at any time during the assembly session,” said R Pradeep, senior consultant at SIDCO.

Expecting the announcement, the TN pharma industry (IDMA) has called a meeting of its executive committee on April 5 to discuss further matters. Last month the TN IDMA submitted their recommendations to the government following the announcement of the park site by the government. According to sources from the industry, government has notified 250 acres of land at Tindivanam for the development of the pharma cluster.

J Jayaseelan, chairman of the TN IDMA, said this Tindivanam Pharma Park will not only benefit the pharma industry in Tamil Nadu, but also it will benefit the pharma MSMEs in Pondicherry which is 35 kilometer distance from Tindivanam. The union territory of Pondicherry is a leader in drug manufacturing sector with the services of over 100 formulation companies. Chennai is 130 kilometers away from Tindivanam.

With the two days programme on 8 and 9 next month, the pharmaceutical industry association hopes that the event will instill confidence among the industry and help revive the businesses of entrepreneurs including those of the pharma SMEs. The organizers expect good responses during the two days of the trade fair. TN IDMA has assigned one Mumbai based event management company to organize the program in Chennai.

It is learnt that this year’s exhibition-cum-industry seminars are completely focused on the growth and development of the pharma small-scale industries in south India. All seminars are focusing on dialogues with innovations in digital marketing by MSMEs and how to promote exports by small-scale entrepreneurs.

L. Sivanandam, organizing secretary of the trade show, said this is the seventh edition of the event in the series after skipping two years, 2020 and 2021, due to Covid-19 pandemic. He said this year’s Pharmac South is completely focusing on small scale entrepreneurs’ growth.

Briefing Pharmabiz, he said, on the first day July 8, after the inauguration by the chief guest from the government side, a CEO’s Talk is organized to reassure and inspire the SME entrepreneurs in south India to become successful in their businesses.  The chief operating officer of Encube Ethicals in Gujarat will deliver the address. The program organizers have designed two sessions in the afternoon, one on marketing topics and another on motivation to inspire and motivate the sales and marketing teams of the industry.

The second day will have four sessions in total, two in the morning and two in the afternoon, and each session will have a duration of 90 minutes. The vice-chairman of the Pharmexcil, SV Veeramani, will address the participants in the morning. An exclusive session on exports by pharmaceuticals by SMEs will be arranged in the afternoon.

From the TN IDMA side J Jayaseelan, the chairman of the association has commented that over 100 exhibitors will showcase their products and machineries in the two days expo.

“So far 700 square metres of the space has been booked by 65 exhibitors from north India. We are expecting the same number of people from the southern states also. In order to inspire and motivate the small entrepreneurs in marketing and exports, we have arranged some special programs in the two days show. Pharmac South is entirely a trade fair for the small and medium industries in the south,” he ascertained.

The Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) has decided to actively participate in this year’s Pharmac South Expo to be held in Chennai Trade Centre from July 8 to 9 to help promote the business of the small-scale pharma entrepreneurs.

The council wants to support the SME sector including manufacturers, contract manufacturers, and pharmaceutical marketers in the south by directing and guiding them on how to become exporters. For this purpose, a special stall will be put up in the exhibition hall as a point of contact for the industry people to clear all doubts and answer their queries about export opportunities, says SV Veeramani, vice-chairman of Pharmexcil.

“We want to help the SMEs, contract manufacturers, and marketers to enter into the export business. Many SMEs want to export their products but they do not get support from anywhere. Our director-general Dr. Ravi Uaday Bhaskar will be attending the two days program and he has agreed to give a talk on ‘the export opportunities to support SMEs.” Officials from the council will be in the stall to provide information about export from India to other countries and promotion of business,” he told Pharmabiz.

Veeramani said unlike previous years, this year’s Pharmac South will share very good opportunities for the entrepreneurs. A lot of manufacturers are attending to display their capacities. The contract manufacturers can also use their facilities to do exports, for which all information will be given at the stall put up in the hall. The participating manufacturers and marketers can display their products in their stalls.

Stressing the support to the SME sector, Veeramani, who is the former chairman of the Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association (IDMA) said this year’s pharmaceutical trade show (Pharmac South 2022) is aiming to fully support the SMEs only.  Contract manufacturers and marketers from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Pondicherry, Karnataka and Kerala are also invited to Chennai to join with the entrepreneurs of Tamil Nadu. The entire pharma industry will get a boost this year and every participant can benefit from the two days event.

Welcoming the decision of the pharmaceutical promotion council, MD Varadarajan, president of the SME Pharma Manufacturers’ Association in Tamil Nadu (TN PMA) said the association hopes this year’s Pharmac South will open doors for the small scale entrepreneurs for doing exports. He said he wants every small pharmaceutical entrepreneur to become a manufacturer and exporter of pharmaceuticals to bring more revenue to the state. According to him, the seminars organized by Pharmac South organizers will become an eye-opener for small scale industries to boost their business.

“Every entrepreneur wants to promote his business and he looks for opportunities. I have appealed to all our members to participate in this year’s trade show and also invited the marketers of the state to come and attend the program. The TN IDMA’s efforts to conduct seminars and exhibitions are appreciable”, he said.

This year’s Pharmac South exhibition will display a wide range of pharmaceutical products and machineries from all over the country and it is expected that the show will help the small scale pharma entrepreneurs in the southern states to capture new markets and customers for their products, nationally and internationally, says Varsha Surve, coordinator of trade fair at Orbit Exhibitions Pvt Ltd, Mumbai.

The two-day exhibition-cum-seminars is organized jointly by Orbit Exhibitions and Tamil Nadu drug manufacturers association (TN IDMA) and the event is set to take place at the excellent facilities of the Chennai Trade Centre from July 8 to 9.

Detailing about the event, Varsha said, since the inception of Pharmac South in 2014, the exhibition has proven to be the largest show of innovative pharmaceutical products and company profiles for good-quality enquiries and is attracting more than 3,000 buyers of contract manufacturing services from India and outside. The buyer groups comprise manufacturing companies and marketing companies. This year’s event is expected to benefit more than 10,000 SME units of allopathic and ISM medicines operating in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Karnataka and Kerala.

“Compared to previous years, the enthusiasm of the exhibitors has increased a lot this year to display their products after the challenges of the Covid pandemic. So far 85 stalls have been sold out. The area of the show covers 2,500 sq mtr including a conference hall. We are bringing manufacturers from across the country to boost the businesses of contract manufacturers, pharma marketers and SME entrepreneurs in the south. The event will be an opportunity for the local manufacturers and the big players of north India to meet together on a common platform and build relationships for contract manufacturing services and to buy innovative products,” she told Pharmabiz.

Talking about the participation, Varsha said this year the show is expected to witness over 150 exhibitors and 5,000 visitors. The expo is supported by, apart from TN IDMA, SME pharma association (TN PMA), Pondicherry Drug Manufacturers Association (PDMA), PMAs of Karnataka and Kerala state.

Adding inputs, the chairman of the TN IDMA, J Jayaseelan said this time the duration of the seminars has been truncated and also curtailed panel discussions in order to help the entrepreneurs learn more about the products at the show and discuss with the exhibitors in the stalls. However, some valuable talks have been arranged to clear the doubts of the visitors. Pharmexcil is organizing one talk on export opportunities to help the SMEs.

“We don’t want to make the entrepreneurs sit in the seminar hall for the whole day, instead we want them to visit the stalls and learn about products and machineries,” said Jayaseelan by adding that separate marketing seminars will be held on both the days to motivate the pharma marketers.