AFRICA OUTLOOK: CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR CAREER PAST AND HOW YOU CAME TO WORK FOR NBI?
Shanay Singh, Head of Business Development: “I started working in the healthcare sector as a hospital pharmacist and after a couple of years I moved into clinical work.
“This was a great opportunity because I was able to help patients and make an instant difference to their lives. When I started this line of work, I thought it was a good idea to undertake further higher education, so I chose a master’s in Clinical Pharmacy and eventually an MBA. About halfway through my clinical master’s course I was approached by a large multinational pharmaceutical company who needed a person from the clinical field in their business development team.
“For me, this was an opportunity to help patients on a much larger scale and so I took the chance. After six years with the company, I had progressed in my responsibilities and positions and had also picked up the business side of company operations.
“Following this, I joined NBI as the Head of Business Development, and here I remain!” skill, expertise and familiarity.
“But where we have open positions, it can sometimes become difficult to find people to fill them. We begin with internal promotion first, where possible, and then we look externally. Whoever we recruit, we do so with potential in mind and we are investing in their personal and professional growth to reach the level that is required by the business.”
NBI ensures that it makes and retains key suppliers in order to continue providing its client base with its human plasma-derived medicinal products. Due to the company’s unique place in the industry and the continent, strong and reliable supplier partnerships are vital to this continuation.
“We have strong relationships with our existing suppliers in this regard,” Singh says. “These are critical when it comes to securing materials and adding revenue streams to the business.
“NBI also has been involved with programmes that work with blood services in various countries across Africa, working alongside them to secure high quality plasma to help enhance and meet quality standards that provide accreditation for industry use. We generally try and collaborate as much as possible to secure plasma and supply partners.”
“WE ARE ONLY ABLE TO ACHIEVE THIS LEVEL OF BUSINESS THROUGH OUR DEDICATED WORKFORCE” – SHANAY SINGH, HEAD OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, NATIONAL BIOPRODUCTS INSTITUTE
MOVING FORWARD IN HEALTHCARE
Since its inception, NBI has traditionally been a product-oriented company. But moving forward, NBI is taking the opportunity to offer its clients a new range of services to best help those who need it.
“We have a whole new suite of service offerings that we are going to launch soon,” Singh elaborates. “These new services present a huge opportunity for us, both in terms of the expertise we can deliver but also in supporting the local and international pharmaceutical companies that are in search of such service providers.”
NBI is aiming to introduce a multitude of different offers, from contract manufacturing and biotech services to sales and marketing, enabling the company to provide its clients with a greater calibre of options.
“Contract manufacturing will regard sterile products that have seen a rather high demand, especially among corporate clients,” Singh informs us. “Our suite of biotech services that we are able to offer includes custom antibody creation and manufacture.
“We are also hoping to add value to our clients through our strong sales and marketing presence. This will additionally consist of a greater focus on partnerships and promotional products in South Africa through the division. NBI works with many different medical groups and so we will be able to offer sales and marketing support to these people.”
These expansion plans will bring great value to NBI’s patients both in South Africa and globally, with a focus on a number of areas such as introducing new products and the growth of supply for existing products; an aim that aligns with the company’s three-to-five-year goal of bettering the health of patients internationally.