CREATING GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES
Having a wide experience and exposure in General Management, New Business/New Product Development in India and for international markets, Mr. Rajeev Nannapaneni has been strategically expanding his portfolio with complex niche products, where competition is limited. Focusing on building strong technological capabilities under his leadership, the company can develop any generic now.
“As he has guided Natco towards success with his insight & knowledge, he has focused on almost exclusively selling generics in oncology”
DEEP MARKET KNOWLEDGE
Mr. Rajeev Nannapaneni is the Vice Chairman & CEO of Natco Pharma Ltd. and holds a B.A. degree in Quantitative Economics and also a B.A. degree in History from Tufts University, Boston, USA. Having worked at Merill Lynch and Natco Systems LLC in USA, he has valuable international experience, which he puts to good use in his day-to-day working and strategic planning in his company.
Believing that the Indian market structure is shaped in such a way that no generic player would ever get to dominate it or even monopolize a big share of the market, he has concentrated on typically niche products as for every such product, 10 to 15 different generics are expected to exist and only the top 2 would do extremely well. As the market dynamics work, generally those generic products would perform well, which entered the market first, whose prices were competitive, and which followed an aggressive marketing strategy. Thus, he has created a strong position for Natco Pharma with the understanding that while India is not a low-price market, it is crucial for products to be affordable here, because it is a payer’s (non- reimbursement) market.
Taking the example of Ranbaxy Laboratories, which as a matter of fact has been acquired by Sun Pharma, he observes that it was highly successful because it had already established its generic brands, and as the law of the Indian market is that revenue should be sustainable, some companies have been able to do well here in spite of competition, because they maintained rather decent prices. Actually, he feels this is the case of several MNCs that have entered the Indian market, as they have bought out companies with sustainable revenue streams to make a robust position of their own.
SHOWING THE WAY
As he has guided Natco Pharma towards consistent success with his immensely insightful experiences and knowledge, he has focused on almost exclusively selling generics in oncology. Also, realizing that though the middle class in India has been growing, there is still an unequal distribution of wealth in the country, and this has a great impact on market
dynamics including the healthcare market, he has been strategizing on helping new modern products enter the Indian market and create a sustainable position for his already existing products.
As he feels that most Indians are still not able to afford some modern therapies, even when India’s wealth is increasing, and several States have been improving their healthcare programs, his strategic move to introduce lower-priced generics in the Indian market is working. He also feels that if it were not for India, affordable generics in the world wouldn’t
have been successful, as the art of organic chemistry was perfected in India only because of the competition Indians experienced domestically.
Focusing on making specialty medicines accessible to all, Mr. Rajeev Nannapaneni’s strategy is to file only 5 to 6 abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) that really fit the company’s core strategy. He has also created Natco’s business model as completely
an alliance model, since he develops a hard-to-make niche product, and then approaches a partner to help out with the litigation and the marketing. Thus, over a course of time, he has been able to build numerous strong alliances and has created a successful business in India
and the US.
