Tarang Shah

Director

Owing to the massive supply chain disrup­tion and exponential cost hike of raw ma­terials, the pharmaceutical industry is undergoing huge changes. Furthermore, with new innovations and drugs hitting the market, chalking out a technology driven raw materials supplier with firm R&D skills and commitment towards quality, becomes increasingly im­portant for the industry and this is where Cogent Life Science comes in.

With impeccable technology driven infrastructure and experienced workforce, the firm is striving to deliver quality assured critical raw materials, like –Active pharmaceutical ingredients Intermediates (“API Int’s”), Key starting materials (“KSM”) & Speciality Chemicals.

Pharma Outlook team interacted with Tarang Shah (Exec. MBA-Harvard Business School) (Director) and Adarsh Shah (B.E Chem) (Managing Director) at Cogent Life Science to find out more.

billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.34% from 2021 to 2028. How do you see this market evolving in India? What are the major The global pharmaceutical manufacturing market size was valued at USD 405.52 factors driving the growth of this market?

India has emerged as a global pharma powerhouse for high quality and cost effective manufacturing. The competency of the Indian pharma industry was evident in times of pandemic. The primary reason responsible for this growth is China plus one factor. All the global companies are now increasingly mapping out alternate vendors to decrease their over-reliance on China. In terms of the reforms, the government of India is also taking few critical steps that includes- fast tracking clearances for setting up new facilities. This in turn is bringing in new investments in the Indian market. Moreover, a high bracket of the youth population that is yet to enter in the field between 2022 and 2030 will add a lot of synergy and energy in this particular sector as well.

What are the major expectations of clients from Pharma research companies? How do you meet those expectations?

Since the past few quarters the global pharma market has witnessed a drastic change. Starting with supply chain disruption to surge in overall cost of the raw materials, the pharma industry is now battling with multiple problems. However, looking at the demand side, the clients are maintaining a non-negotiable attitude in terms of quality of the products along with effective pricing mechanisms. This has created a huge disruption and a gap for many products in the pharma industry.

At Cogent, we believe in delivering optimal solutions and our R&D team is continually working on new methods, technologies for clean and green chemistry, along with reducing a carbon footprint. Furthermore, our wealth of experience and in-depth industry knowledge enables our clients to navigate the challenges for new product development at different stages while minimizing the risk and ensuring the optimum outcome.

Walk us through the overall infrastructure at Cogent Life Science? How is the firm leveraging advanced technology and techniques to attain purity?

At present, Cogent Life Science is mainly into developing key starting material and the advanced intermediates. To cite an example – we manufacture 3-Hydroxy Acetophenone that goes into the development of Phenylephrine, Rivastigmine API, wherein the application is to get relief from sinus cough and cold. In addition, we are also getting into developing the building blocks for the gene therapy that includes Deoxyamidites or RNA Amidites, LNA, Ribonucleotides.

Although these products have a huge demand across all the pharmaceuticals and biotech companies, diagnostic laboratories, the CROs and CMOS Academic Research Institute. There are a handful of manufacturers globally who are developing these products owing to the entry barriers and complex chemistry molecules.

However, our advanced manufacturing technology has put us a leap forward in manufacturing these products. Furthermore, our approach towards continuous manufacturing processes is aiding to simplify the complex reactions while reducing the carbon footprint. Over the time, our approach has evolved as a USP for the company.

What are the major differentiating factors that set you apart from other players in this segment?

Our primary key differentiating factor lies in our approach to unleash advanced manufacturing. Currently, we are using flow reactors to manufacture the molecules that we desire while bringing down the cost of production. We are also actively leveraging Artificial Intelligence to develop a holistic and data-driven model, thereby paving the avenues for intelligent manufacturing.

hether a drug will go generic and how to navigate the patent landscape. Hence, we can quickly identify new markets and new products by taking informed decisions. AI and machine learning are extremely important for us to develop cost effective, reliable and robust processes across the supply chain. Furthermore, it also helps us with the predictive maintenance and protecting the supply chain managing regulatory affairs.

At Cogent, we are also using renewable energy sources, wherein we have already deployed solar cells for electricity generation. We have pledged to attain net zero carbon emission within the next 10 years. Our team is working to build a strong foundation of Innovation driven Clean and Green Chemistry.

We are very well positioned in terms of a wide spectrum of products, and we also have a Strong pipeline in place. We are an ISO 9001 certified cGMP approved company, our state-of-the-art infrastructure is poised to handle complex and challenging chemistries in safe environments, which are hugely demanded by the Chinese firms. Over years, our team has created a strongest slack establishment in a different set of industries such as pharma, specialty chemicals, agro-chemicals, and Petrochemicals.

What is the future roadmap for Cogent Life Science?

We are a technology driven company with an undivided attention towards clean and green chemistry. Our team understands that the manufacturing industry is expected to go through a paradigm shift, especially when it comes to cost effective and environment friendly manufacturing. Presently, nearly 150 gene therapy drugs are in the late stage of clinical trials and even if 10 to 20 percent of these drugs come into the market for commercialization, we will be in the forefront towards providing advanced and cost effective raw material. Cogent also has experts who have a focused approach for handling these complex industries and we are on course to set up a state of art USFDA approved facility near Mumbai for manufacturing, speciality chemicals and pharma intermediates. In the end, it will be our endeavor to do the right thing with precision, pace and passion. We own and shape our future and we create sustainable growth for all.