Welcome to Bilcare - an integrated service and solutions provider to the global pharmaceutical sector across the value chain through its key business activities namely - Pharma Packaging Innovations, Global Clinical Services and Brand Management Technologies.
Dr. Praful Naik, Chief Scientific Officer & Executive Director of the company has been associated with the company since 2002. Being a Pharmacist by profession, he has been one of those lucky people who turn their passion into profession. In a tête-à-tête with Print-Packaging.Com, he tells us about the foundation, function and future of Bilcare.

Tell us about the origin of Bilcare.
Bilcare was started by Mohan Bhandari, a packaging student turned expert, in 1995. The core of the company was to look at creating and providing value to the pharmaceutical / medicine fraternity through innovative packaging solutions and so Bhandari started with an Application Development Centre in Pune. Very soon, the company moved towards having its own manufacturing, packaging, training, R&D and clinical services.

What made Bilcare extend its functions to packaging and providing technological solutions?
The fact that packaging does play a critical role in the medicine remaining safe and efficacious till the same is consumed by the patient / consumer, we concretised our move towards packaging sector with unilateral focus on Pharma packaging.

Further, it is important to realise that medicine is also organic like a food item, and therefore easily perishable in the presence of moisture, light and temperature, yet unlike food products, medicines have a shelf life anywhere from 2-5 years. Understanding these intrinsic challenges, we focused on creating a range of packaging films with varying levels of barrier against moisture.

Besides, there was high requirement for a barrier for PVC, which is easily penetrated by moisture. The technology used for these barrier coatings are quite complex and sophisticated but we decided to develop in-house expertise and also simultaneously enhance our R&D capabilities to create new products based on coating technologies.

What drives Bilcare towards taking risks and challenges?
Bilcare is not driven by competition, but by challenges faced by its end users. What do they want, where are they facing inconvenience, how can we make things easier for them etc. We try to understand and grasp their requirement, blend it and come up with an idea.

What standards do you follow in the manufacturing of your products?
We strongly believe in research and innovations which have high end use viability and applicability. We follow the principle of 5 Cs' at Bilcare - Counterfeit, compliance, communication, convenience and cost. These, we believe are the key challenges and concerns of the global pharmaceutical industry.

From where did the idea of providing clinical services generate?
Encouraged by our national and global customers, we rightly blended and integrated our expertise in packaging and material sciences in the clinical services domain and today we have state of art full services facilities in USA, UK, India and Singapore. These facilities have comprehensive capabilities encompassing formulation and analytical development, manufacturing and packaging of clinical supplies, storage and distribution world wide and returns and destruction management along with sophisticated technologies like IVRS for use by our customers

What is the USP of Bilcare and its products?
Bilcare carries the uniqueness of being a complete source for pharma solutions through its innovations. We deal in material sciences, pharma packaging innovations, global clinical supplies, sophisticated and high end technology solutions, specialised research services and specialised training programs. The recent path breaking technology innovation based on Nanotechnology stands testimony to our research & innovation commitment. The technology has the ability to provide a wide range of solutions, from 100 percent secured authentication, track and trace, e-pedigree to medication compliance and e-business solutions.

What prompted Bilcare to have its own training school for the pharma industry employees and students?
It was again the pharma industry that brought together Bilcare and the worlds’ premier organisation in clinical research best practices Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP), which culminated in creation of specialised programs for aspiring professionals taking Clinical research as career pathway. Huge efforts were put in from both teams to create apt programs ensuring that professionals trained had the ability to conduct clinical research at par with global standards. Today the academy has two centers - one in Pune and other in Bangalore with multiple ACRP chapters not only established in India but in Singapore as well.

Does Bilcare face any competition in the pharma sector?
No. It might sound a bit unusual but Bilcare is uniquely positioned as a provider of innovative solutions to the global pharma sector in their key areas of challenges and concerns right from development stage to the commercialisation of their drug products covering aspects and activities other than their expertise. This has resulted in uniquely creating, building, sustaining and expanding integrated business activities which no other company in the world has simulated.

Tell us about Bilcare's R&D facility.
The R&D facility of Bilcare was inaugurated in Pune on 16 December 2007 by Former President of India, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and Dr John L. Lamattina, the then Senior Vice President, Pfizer Inc and President, Pfizer Global Research & Development. We have named this facility as the 'Innovation Campus'. The Center has specialised state of the art sections for packaging innovations, material research, analytical research, drug sensitivity studies and package design including technologies application research which supports the main technology center in Singapore. The R&D division has satellite centers in USA and Singapore making it directly accessible to our customers in key regions of the world.

What are the biggest achievements of Bilcare?
The biggest satisfaction came when both the major pharma organisations in India i.e. OPPI (Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India) and IDMA (Indian Drugs Manufacturers Association) in consensus nominated Bilcare as their representative on the WHO IMPACT (International Medical Product Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force of World Health Organisation). Our Technology product has got global recognitions including coveted awards like ZED Tech, Red Herring & Nano Challenge with covered feature in prestigious “Innovation”. But worth mentioning is the recently conferred Best Product of the year 2008 by European Pharma Outsourcing Award for our Metalised packaging film innovation.

Tell us about the global reach of Bilcare.
Bilcare today has state of the art manufacturing and research facilities for pharma packaging innovation business in India, Singapore and USA supported with distribution and secondary operations facilities in Europe. Similarly, we have manufacturing and research facilities for Global Clinical Supplies business in USA, UK and India with distribution capabilities in Singapore. The Technologies business has the main development and manufacturing center in Singapore with development support centers in India. We have regional offices in Germany, China and Brazil and have over 23 representative offices across the world.

What suggestion do you have for the Indian packaging industry as a whole?
The packaging industry needs to innovate. The industry is growing tremendously but to make a mark, everyone has to do something off the league. There should be more involvement in research. It is not about making high investments, but they can partner, collaborate, outsource and continuously look for such new pathways to not only sustain but grow incrementally.

direct-in@bilcare.com

Date: 28-Aug-2008

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