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.