Event

When industry champions meet

Nandini Patwardhan - Mumbai

Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) decided to get all the stalwarts of the pharma industry at its AGM meeting. In addition to the glitter, the occasion witnessed the release of the 40th Annual OPPI report, election of the office bearers for the year and felicitation of the OPPI award winners.

Murli Deora, Honourable Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas was the Chief Guest for the day. The minister congratulated the pharmaceutical industry for contributing significantly towards improving health indicators of the country and urged them to partner with the government to improve access to medicines. In his presidential address, Ranjit Shahani reinforced OPPI's support to the National Pharmaceutical Policy 2006 and also stated that the government should move from cost based price control to a system of price monitoring which will address concerns of the industry and patients.

The keynote speaker Paresh Vaish, Director, from the Boston Consulting Group, gave a lively and power-packed presentation on ‘Strategic Issues in Emerging Pharma Landscape’. Dr Ajit Dangi, the Director General of OPPI announced the election of the new President and four Vice-Presidents of OPPI. Ranjit Shahani, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Novartis India was unanimously re-elected as the President for 2006-07. The four Vice-Presidents elected for the period are Ranga Iyer, Managing Director of Wyeth, Dr Girish Telang, Managing Director of Roche Scientific Company, Dr Shailesh Ayyangar, Managing Director of Aventis Pharma—Sanofi Aventis Group and Kewal Handa, Managing Director of Pfizer.

In addition to this, OPPI presented their annual awards of excellence, which were initiated in order to recognise, honour and encourage outstanding performance in the pharmaceutical sector. This year, the OPPI Marketing Excellence Award was presented to Novartis India for their marketing initiatives for Voveran, in the ‘existing pharmaceutical products’ category. Sanofi-Aventis received the Marketing Excellence Award for the marketing of Myoril, in the ‘new pharmaceutical products’ category.

The OPPI Scientist Award was presented to Dr Arvind Kumar Bansal from the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) for his outstanding work in the area of pharmaceutics. Gujarat Glass received the Best Vendor award yet again for their performance in the category of 'packaging material suppliers'. Associated Capsules too was awarded the OPPI Best Vendor award for the second time, for their performance in the ‘raw material suppliers’ category.