“We need Indian patients in our global clinical trials to enable product commercialisation”
Country Managing
Director India, Boehringer Ingelheim
Formerly the Global Head of Boehringer Ingelheim’s Go-To-Market and Business Steering organisation in Germany, Vani Manja has recently stepped in as the Country Managing Director for India. In this role, she has assumed responsibility for the company’s businesses in India and the neighbouring markets. Her global experience in healthcare spans nearly two decades across McKinsey & Company, Becton Dickinson and Boehringer Ingelheim, and is characterised by strong global mobility and crossfunctional leadership assignments across healthcare and management consulting. Speaking to BioSpectrum, Vani Manja, Country Managing Director India, Boehringer Ingelheim shares the company’s roadmap of partnerships and patient access programmes to sustain its growth momentum in 2021. Edited excerpts;
What are your major plans for 2021?
Boehringer Ingelheim India aspires to be amongst the top five multinational pharmaceutical companies in India over the next few years. We have been enabling access to our innovator products to patients across India and the neighbouring markets in diabetes, cardiovascular, stroke and respiratory diseases segments. Our plan in these therapy areas is to build sustainable partnerships to ensure an ecosystem of access and care for patients. We have initiated action in that direction. In addition, Boehringer Ingelheim India’s Animal Health business, which focuses on advanced, preventive health solutions for pets and poultry, aims to more than double the sales over the coming five years.
Please elaborate on the therapeutic areas currently being focused on for further growth.
In diabetes, Boehringer Ingelheim’s research and development has been focused on bringing comprehensive solutions to the management of type 2 diabetes and its related cardio-renal-metabolic complications. The company has been investing significantly in understanding the condition in its entirety. With our differentiated product portfolio and our global learnings and experience in holistically managing type 2 diabetes and related health challenges, we keenly share the vision of our doctors, health experts and patients to lead India towards becoming a diabetescare capital of the world, in partnership with other stakeholders in the ecosystem. Meanwhile, in the area of stroke, Boehringer Ingelheim India has established a partnership model to help hospitals across 23 States and 3 Union Territories to improve the standard of care for stroke management. The partnership model entails the development of an increased network of stroke-ready centres across India. It also includes supporting healthcare professionals (HCPs) with world-class training to identify and treat stroke within the recommended treatment window. We are also working towards enabling an ecosystem for stroke care by bringing in multi-disciplinary teams that can address disease management through the continuum of care. Boehringer Ingelheim India collaborates with 380 centres, enabling support for over 10,000 patients to access effective stroke care. Stroke is one of the leading causes of mortality in India attributing to around 30 per cent of the overall morbidity, with almost 70 per cent of the stroke cases either being treatable or preventable. Boehringer Ingelheim’s therapy for Acute Ischemic Stroke (AIS) treatment is in use in more than 85 countries.
What are your plans to enhance pharma R&D?
Boehringer Ingelheim’s R&D focus in human pharma is on cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, oncology, respiratory, immunology, diseases of the central nervous system and retinal health. In India, our R&D partnerships have been contributing to this end. So, while globally there are huge investments taking place in R&D at BI, but for India how it will translate is a matter of these partnerships. With the approval of a drug and clinical trial rules in 2019, there is now a recognition that we need Indian patients in our global clinical trials to be able to support product commercialisation. With this strengthening of the infrastructure and the good practices in clinical trials in India, we are actively pursuing dialogues within the team to bring our innovation in science and research to India.