How Ex-Janssen India Chief Is Steering Bharat Serums’ Ambitions In Women’s Health
Executive Summary
Sanjiv Navangul, managing director and CEO, Bharat Serums and Vaccines, in a wide-ranging interview with Scrip, outlines the firm’s game plan to establish itself as a “force to reckon with” in women’s health - it goes beyond drugs and encompasses devices and potentially digital therapeutics as well. The former Janssen India chief also weighs in on the worrying industry-wide input cost escalation scenario and supply chain turbulence.
It’s been an action-packed few years for the Indian biopharmaceutical firm, Bharat Serums And Vaccines Limited (BSV).
Sanjiv Navangul, MD and CEO, Bharat Serums and Vaccines
BSV
While 2019 saw the US-based private equity investor Advent International snap up a majority holding in BSV, a local pioneer in the development of blood components and therapeutic antibody products for infectious and non-infectious diseases, the firm kicked off 2022 with almost back-to-back acquisitions setting out its ambitions in the women’s heath segment.
Steering BSV’s charge is former Janssen India chief Sanjiv Navangul, who came onboard post the Advent transaction. (Also see "Ex-Janssen India Chief To Lead PE-Controlled Bharat Serums" - Scrip, 17 Feb, 2020.) An industry veteran, known for deploying “responsible pricing” approaches for Januvia (sitagliptin) and Invokana (canagliflozin) in his previous stints at MSD and Janssen respectively, Navangul tells Scrip how things look from the other side, outside of big pharma, and also why disruptions in the global supply chain have to perhaps be considered as “normal and not abnormal” hereon. (Also see "Supply Chain Crunch Meets Olympics Shutdown: China, India Drug Makers Embrace For Perfect Storm" - Scrip, 3 Dec, 2021.)
The executive also outlines how he’s shaping BSV's play in women’s health in a strategy that goes beyond drugs to encompass devices and potentially digital therapeutics as well.
Is the game plan to eventually spin out women’s health, along the lines of what Merck & Co., Inc. did for Organon & Co. or is Navangul gearing BSV for a public listing? Find out more on this topic and others in the podcast.
Podcast Time Stamps
00:09 Introduction
02:13 Shift from Janssen to BSV
06:16 Responsible Pricing from a patient’s point of view
08:38 Cost escalations are happening across the board
13:42 Plans to be the most relevant healthcare firm in women's health
19:15 Ecosystem to help women get better healthcare
20:57 Creating an ecosystem of startups
21:36 BabyBeat device
23:33: In-licensing opportunities
26:02: Digital therapeutics
29:18 New manufacturing/R&D sites
33:32 Progress on ulinastatin for COVID-19
37:20: BSV five years down the line
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