The seminar was attended by pharmaceutical professionals from formulation development, R&D, purchase and top management
Usha Sharma / Ahmedabad
Gangwal Chemicals has recently organised a technical seminar in Ahmedabad with an objective to create a platform for its existing and new customers to update about the company’s existing product portfolio and strengthen the relationship across the India. The company also informed that it is the first in a series of such seminars which will be held across the country. The seminar was attended by pharmaceutical professionals from formulation development, R&D, purchase and top management.
The event started off with Dr Vijay Sharma, Senior Manager—Business Development, Gangwal Chemicals welcoming the delegates and the introduction of the West chapter of ACE (Agenda, Convention and Entertainment) in Ahmedabad, initiated by the Gangwal Chemicals. The company aims to have ACE chapters across India. A corporate audio visual (AV) presentation of Gangwal Chemicals which gave a detailed overview of the company’s vision, business objectives, key achievements, marketing strategies etc., set the context for the technical seminar. Following this, another corporate video of Gangwal Laboratory Analytical Services (GLAS), a group company of Gangwal Chemicals highlighted the company’s objective and key regulatory compliance activities.
Dr Bhavesh Patel, Technical Service Manager, AstaReal (India), (A Fuji Chemical Industries group, Japan) presented the first technical session of the day. Bhavesh began his talk by informing that Fuji Chemical Industries, Japan is offering an unique speciality problem solving pharma excipients and nutraceutical ingredient to India and showcased the success journey of Fuji Chemical Industries, Japan in India. His presentation highlighted the company’s global presence and different products/services being offered to the pharma and nutraceutical companies across the world.
He elaborated on how Fuji Chemical’s speciality problem-solving excipients such as Neusilin, Fujicalin and F-Melt are helping pharma formulation scientists to solve numerous formulation related challenges such as conversion of oil to powder, stabilisation of hygroscopic/moisture sensitive API, flow improvement of poorly flowable drug, minimise hardness drop issue during long term tablet storage, improvement of quick disintegration time in ODT, unique non-abrasive dibasic calcium phosphate anhydrous (DCPA) to reduce black particle generation problem in tablet, etc. He informed that AstaReal is clinically most studied brand of Natural Astaxanthin ingredient across the world and explained its USPs. He informed that, AstaReal Natural Astaxanthin ingredient is obtained from haematococcus Pluvialis- Fresh water Microalgae and is the most powerful antioxidant from nature (6000 times stronger than Vitamin C and 560 times stronger than green tea catechin in terms of Singlet Oxygen Quenching Power).
Talking about human clinical safety and efficacy data, he informed that more than 60 human clinical studies on AstaReal Natural Astaxanthin have been published in peer reviewed international scientific journal for various health indication such as anti-ageing (skin health), cardiac health, anti-fatigue, eye health, Sarcopenia, Brain health, muscle endurance, male fertility, sports nutrition, diabetes health, etc, and emphasised that Fuji Chemical is the only company who has introduced natural Astaxanthin as nutraceutical ingredient in FSSAI based on supportive human clinical, safety and efficacy data with AstaReal (Fuji) Natural Astaxanthin. He had informed that, natural Astaxanthin (from Haematococcus Pluvialis microalgae) is an approved nutraceutical ingredient under FSSAI gazetted notification and pharma/nutra companies in India can use natural Astaxanthin ingredient in their nutraceutical/dietary supplement formulations.
The subsequent speaker, Ranjit Gokhale, Senior Manager—Business Development, Nisso Chemical India, (subsidiary of Nippon Soda, Japan) highlighted that Nippon Soda will be celebrating its centennial anniversary in 2020. He also gave a brief about the company’s global presence, including manufacturing plants and R&D centres. His presentation’s focus was on applications of HPC SSL (SFP) as dry binder. While explaining about the benefits of HPC SSL (SFP), he mentioned that with this unique low viscosity binder, formulators will be able to reduce tablet size and get excellent tablet properties at very low concentration usage of SSL-SFP. The special advantages of SSL-SFP were explained by showing the mechanical strength of SSL-SFP grade over other binders and also through various case studies covering dry granulation, direct compression and use in orally disintegrating tablets.
He also informed that Nisso HPC has special benefits over other cellulose binders such as, broad portfolio of 14 grades covering wide viscosity range and particle sizes, a five-year shelf life, silica-free, convenient pack size of 10 kg and has US DMF. He informed that Nisso HPC is also registered in the China market. About future development strategy of Nippon Soda, he explained that the company is doing research to develop special HPC grades to help formulators solve critical challenges.
Dr Jaywant Pawar, Manager—Technical and Business Development, Gangwal Chemicals was the next speaker. Before commencing his presentation, he interacted with the audience and posed a question to them. He asked them about the process by which pharma companies take a call while developing a new dosage form and how managers assign projects to their subordinates. He asked them to share their strategies to get optimum results in the fastest time possible with limited resources. This interaction engaged the audience and kept them engrossed.
His presentation on DiCOM–DC a multi-functionality co-processed excipient provided detailed information about the Indian excipient market. It informed that the Indian market is growing at a rate of 10-12 per cent vis-à-vis 5-7 per cent globally. His presentation touched upon the need for a new highly functional excipient to scale up the manufacturing process with stability. His presentation also addressed the need for a novel, co-processed excipient and its benefits. While explaining about the advantages of co-processed excipient, he said that it is clinically safe and there is no chemical change in the output. Dr Pawar emphasised that Gangwal’s DiCOM–DC excipients will help pharma companies to reduce multiple usage of raw materials against their solution and help them gain optimum result in the process of formulation.
Adding more information to Pawar’s presentation, Sharma explained that Gangwal Chemicals’ solutions can reduce time and cost while enhancing the production capacity. The last presentation of the day was on ‘Nutraceutical – A new leap for the healthcare sector.’ It was presented by Sandeep Gupta, Chairman of Standard Review Group (SRG) – FSSAI, Director of Expert Nutraceutical Advocacy Council (ENAC). He touched upon lifestyle changes and its impact on human life. During the presentation, he drew attention to the top health concerns due to lifestyle changes such as disease in later life/ life-style diseases; eye health; energy level; bones and joints; digestion; weight management; skin health; immunity; emotional balance; cardiac health and fertility issues. He also pointed out that these areas are creating enormous business opportunities. His detailed talk on health benefits from nutraceutical products also encouraged the audience to adopt a healthy lifestyle. In his session, he mentioned about how nutraceuticals will play an important role in healthcare. He urged pharma companies to maximise the existing opportunities in this segment.
Talking about the business opportunities, which pharma companies can consider, he said that Astaxanthin, Flaxseed Oil, Resveratrol, Glutathione, Collgen Peptides, Probiotics, Protein sachets are gaining popularity in India. These nutraceutical ingredients in combination or as a single ingredient product with effective dose offers enormous business opportunities.
He mentioned that pharma and nutra companies need to consider the consumers’ requirements before designing their products. Stressing on the importance of sourcing material from the right place, he said that in the nutra sector, producers need to focus on purity, source and processes to lay claim to the product’s quality for purity.
He signalled that the market for astaxanthin, prebiotic and probiotic products are set to grow considerably. He said that these markets have much bigger scope than nutraceuticals and companies can tap them. In his summation, he said that the Indian nutraceutical market is expected to grow from $4 billion in 2017 to $18 billion in 2025, with a huge 21 per cent increase every year. He said that India is a hub for manufacturing quality based products and we should continue to focus on developing indigenous products. The day-long event ended on an interactive note.
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