Operational Highlights

Aligned with our commitment to customer-centricity, embedding new strengths across different facets of our business is an ongoing endeavour. As we build a better and stronger organization, it also positions us well to achieve new paradigms of growth.

Manufacturing Facilities

Expanding our GDS portfolio

The filing of 3 DMFs (Tafamidis Form-4; Voxelotor Form-1; Voxelotor co-crystal) during the year further strengthened our offerings for generic formulators. These products are highly differentiated and will enable us to address the preferences of quality-conscious customers. While enabling us to command a higher premium, these products also reinforce our position as a leading global provider of generic APIs.

Enhancing manufacturing competencies

Aligned with our growth goals, necessary investments were made in enhancing our manufacturing. A new hydrogenation block of 5000L capacity was added. Other key highlights included the installations of nauta dryer, co-mill and hammer mill with technical specifications that will enable better execution of our manufacturing commitment. We also increased the capacity of our cryogenic equipment.

Growing our R&D capabilities

In our R&D centre, new laboratories were set up to empower our researchers with the support they need for their experiments and studies. This included the addition of GC Lab – Peptide Lab, CMS Lab, and Separation science Laboratory, and Stability Chambers Facility.

Our R&D team strength was increased and scientific experts were appointed for new roles created within our research function. We continued to invest in growing the knowledge and skills of our team. Our efforts comprised organising engagements with our Scientific Advisory Board for ongoing projects and future technologies and providing technical training opportunities.

We have adopted phase-appropriate approach for our R&D work. This means that standards and controls are followed on a fit-for-purpose basis depending on project stage and requirements, thereby enabling faster and more efficient operations.

A major scientific achievement for the year was the establishment of a new polymorph process for an NCE. New polymorphs with innovative ideas were also created for a couple of more products. New product validations, scaling up of 3 purification projects, filing of 12 patent applications, and completing genotoxic /nitrosamine assessment for 10 projects were among the other highlights.

Strengthening our Quality focus

Our continued focus on quality led to the construction of a new state-of-the-art Quality Control Laboratory for Unit-3. Automation of our quality processes is another thrust area for upholding our strong compliance culture. The deployment of Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) which enables the electronic capturing of laboratory data, was scaled up across our three manufacturing units. Data integrity is also being driven by our Quality Management Systems (QMS), which are already in use across all our manufacturing sites.

As we work towards our strategic priority of process digitisation, the transformation of our quality function is yielding the benefits of improved product quality, increased efficiency and reduction in the risk of non-compliance due to oversight in manually managed processes

Augmenting our technology

We started the creation of a single source of truth (SSOT) at Neuland. SSOT ensures that relevant personnel have access to the same data to extract insights, thereby leading to more informed and better decision-making. To enable the effective implementation of SSOT, we are managing, centralising and organising master data according to the business rules of the sales, marketing, and operational strategies of the Company. Along with high data accuracy and data accessibility, SSOT also facilitates better collaboration between teams, a key imperative as we strive to ensure the highest levels of efficiency in project management.

Another highlight of our technology focus was the implementation of Serialisation Toll, a Quick Response (QR) code for all commercial dispatches. This online compliance system integrates the processes with a common workflow to provide on-the-spot labels and audit trail facility.

We are leveraging greater efficiencies with the adoption of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) across our various processes. Automating manual repetitive tasks, RPA is also driving greater accuracy and freeing up our employees’ time for more value-accretive and meaningful work.

We are working on improving our Resource Management, which includes planning, scheduling, and allocating the resources to the right project at the right time to maximise profitability. Other highlights of our efforts towards leveraging the power of technology include undertaking IFC automation to improve the governance process.

Underscoring our continued focus on cybersecurity risk management, we implemented Immutable Backup Solutions. These are currently the highest level of backup protection possible and not prone to ransomware, unattended access, or human factors. Our Information Security Management System (ISMS) certification was successfully renewed as per ISO 27001: 2013 standards.

De-risking and digitising our supply chain

We reduced our reliance on China for key materials by qualifying indigenous suppliers for key molecules. We also identified Indian sources with strong chemistry capabilities and competitiveness for other materials and engaged with them to ensure supply. Our efforts over the years have brought down China-dependent procurement from over 20% in FY 2019 to 10.2% in FY 2023.

Through the complete integration of our Procure-to-Pay (P2P) cloud platform, we have achieved a fully digital procurement process. This has enabled us to secure the best market pricing and collaborate with a wider range of suppliers. Additionally, the digital platform provides ease of transaction, transparency, and traceability, resulting in faster and more informed decision-making.

Embedding new strengths