Headquartered in Osaka, Nipro is a Japanese medical equipment manufacturing company. Since its foundation in 1954, the company has striven to realize its management philosophy of contributing to society through its business activities. Over time, it has also expanded the scope of the business from glass materials to medical devices and pharmaceutical products. It is one of the leaders in the world for medical devices and healthcare products such as hemo dialysis-related products, cardiopulmonary products, diagnostics products, critical care, and medical-surgical products, glass, and rubber products. Today, Nipro employs more than 29,000 colleagues worldwide, and it has a few hundred sales organizations across the world.
Manufacturing plants in India
Annick Somers, chief marketing officer of Nipro, speaks about the company’s manufacturing plants and shares information about the other business verticals of the company, “In the pharma packaging manufacturing sector we have 16 manufacturing plants around the world and out of these two are in India. The glass tubing plant is based in Meerut, and the primary packaging manufacturing plant is near Pune in Maharashtra. Aside from these, we also have a medical plant serving other industries and some dialysis centers in the country.”
Pharma packaging industry
Sharing her thoughts about the pharma packaging manufacturing industry, she admits, based on her knowledge of the parenteral and injectables market, that this industry is growing. “It is growing as a greater number of people have access to medicines and healthcare now. Moreover, whatever new medication that is coming, a big portion of it is in the form of injectables. All in all, this is a very recession-proof industry.
“Nipro, being a Japanese company as well as a very serious company about its business, we follow all the regulatory guidelines, because we understand these regulations only benefit the patient at the end. We are the biggest advocates in this, and we always make sure that our products, as well as processes, respect these guidelines.”
In addition, she points out that there are any number of competitive issues in the industry, “Competitors should understand that in the long run, they won’t be sustainable anymore. I believe that some companies will have a hard time to live up to expectations. And, in case they are not able to live up to expectations, I am sure other companies will pick up in the competition,” she continues.
Nipro uniquely focuses on healthcare
Nipro focuses only on the healthcare sector, says Sommers, “For pharma packaging, we start from the beginning, such as with the making of the glass. We proudly say that we can convert a grain of sand into a high-quality prefilled syringe. We can think on all fronts and 360 angles because, being a company on the medical and treatment side, we understand the viewpoint of the end-users like nurses, doctors, and patients. Similarly, we also understand what the pharmaceutical companies are going through because we are a pharma company ourselves.”
India as an opportunity
Nipro took part in the CPhI exhibition held at Greater Noida from 26 to 28 November. According to Somers, the purpose of attending such exhibitions in India is that the company wants to engage further with the Indian customer base and to show its commitment to the local market. Therefore it is investing heavily in the country. “We want to become a preferred partner going forward.”
“The pharma packaging business has a bright future, but it also goes hand in hand with the pharma industry in India. There have been some negative stories about the pharma industry in India, but as long as the positive stories outnumber the negative stories, it should be fine. It is just a matter of respecting the regulations. India is, by far, the largest exporter of generic drugs. I believe its companies have a bright future.”
Vision
“Nipro pharma packaging is a young company, and it has only been outside of Japan for the last ten years. Now we want to come out of this teenage and tell the world that we are the preferred partners. In the coming years, we plan to bring more value-added products to improve patient outcomes and improve health.”
