On the thrid day the focus was set on our two topics «Enhance Health Care Access» and «Encourage Adaptability». We were happy to have a video call with Paul Kronenberg and Sabriye Tenberken from the NGO kanthari, who talked about how adversity can be transformed into leadership. Two speakers from Novartis introduced us to the topic of pharmaceutical development, safety and risk. From Medgate we heard an interesting speech about digital health solutions. Mr. Sushil Premchand told us about running a century-long family business and to sum up the series of great presentations, PIT Solutions AG held a speech about digital transformation and offshoring to India.
Paul Kronenberg and Sabriye Tenberken from kanthari – How adversity can be transformed into leadership
Presentation via video call with kanthari
kanthari is a small chili that is very spicy and has a medical effect – According to Sabriye Tenberken this definition corresponds to the philosophy of kanthari. The founders believe in the strength of people, their dreams, and their power to change something. They believe in social change and they want to change adversity into leadership. Especially in the crisis of today’s world, it is important to stand up and make a difference. kanthari creates leadership for social change and has the mission to challenge the status quo of today and support motivated people in realizing their dreams.
kanthari was founded by Paul Kronenberg and Sabriye Tenberken as they understood the need for change but could not find any school that would prepare and teach people. Consequently, they started their own leadership training and provided the necessary knowledge. Topics such as environment, education, human rights and disability are addressed today. kanthari wants to bring people together and enable them to start to run their own organization.
A kanthari member doesn’t need to have a master degree or any kind of studies – a kanthari just needs to have a sense of ownership, motivation, and passion to create a positive social impact.
– Written by Anna Beretta
Minhaj Obeidullah from Novartis – Risk Mitigation in the Health Care Sector
As the head of process compliance and risk mitigation within the chief medical office and patient safety at Novartis› global drug development division, Minhaj Obeidullah and her team are anticipating the problems and enhancing the safety of the patients. Minhaj Obeidullah is an Australian born Indian, living in Basel. She experienced strategic leadership specialized in drug safety, quality, medical affairs, compliance, and risk management.
To develop a drug, a budget of billions of dollars is needed. At the same time it takes between 10 to 15 years to develop and approve a new medicine. The clinical trials run globally with the same ethical standard throughout the world.
There are several main drivers for pharmaceutical companies to move or to do business in India. For example, increasing cost efficiency and a high economic growth. Furthermore, higher authorities have established good policy support. Particularly the government of India follows the “Pharma Vision 2020” and aims to make India a global leader in end-to-end drug manufacturing. In addition, the country experiences an increasing private sector. These mentioned aspects are representing an opportunity to operate in India as a pharmaceutical firm.
– Written by Mara Milani and Michel Beugger
Minhaj Obeidullah, Novartis
Selim E. Aydin from Novartis – Patient Safety
Selim E. Aydin, Novartis
Selim E. Aydin is a medical doctor with over a decade of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He joined Novartis as a safety physician and has since held various roles of increasing responsibility, including managing international teams of safety physicians covering small molecules, biopharmaceuticals as well as biosimilars across a broad range of therapeutic areas.
In his speech, Selim E. Aydin talked about their journey in Hyderabad in India. The aim is the governance of patient-facing activities like patient support programs, social media, and medical governance of managed access programs. He further explained the pharmacovigilance activities in Hyderabad. Pharmacovigilance is defined as the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects or any other drug-related problem. The activities in Hyderabad include patient-oriented programs, safety signal management, and managed access programs. It is crucial to minimize the risk and increase the benefit concerning pharmacovigilance. Selim further spoke about signal detection, safety governance, and the management of new risks.
Daniel Karpati and Henri Saenz from Medgate – Digital Health Solutions
A few years ago, people who felt sick had to make a doctor’s appointment and meet their medical specialist in order to get their medication or diagnosis. Even when the patient should stay at home in order to get better, he had to deal with the whole process of making an appointment, setting off to the hospital and have a talk with the doctor. Medgate saw this issue and made a promise: Every person should have access to health care – no matter where or when. Within a short period of time, Medgate has turned its promise into reality. They provide several health care services, such as Tele Clinic, Mini Clinic and the Medgate app.
With Tele Clinic, the customers are able to call a doctor if they are sick and therefore don’t have to leave their safe and comfortable home. This flexible service is available 24/7 and can be used everywhere – even abroad. Another great idea of Medgate is the Mini Clinic – or also called the “Health Kiosk”. These Mini Clinics are usually located in pharmacies where people can just walk in and take some tests. The Medgate app is a further product of the company. If people are sick, the first thing they do is often to google their symptoms. However, not all information found on the internet are trustworthy. This is exactly where the Medgate app steps in. With this service, people can check their symptoms by answering a few questions and thanks to data of artificial intelligence get immediate feedback.
For India, Medgate and all sorts of digital healthcare such as telemedicine have a big potential and would help thousands of people in order to get help faster, easier, and cheaper.
– Written by Searaina Dosch and Aline Schweizer
Henri Saenz (left) and Daniel Karpati (right), Medgate
Sushil Premchand from PRS Permacel Private Limited – Running a century-long family business
Sushil Premchand, PRS Permacel Private Limited
Sushil K. Premchand was born in Bombay, India. Educated in the U.K., he maintained close links with his Indian heritage throughout his years at school and university in England. In connection with his business, he now visits India about 6 times per year. PRS Permacel offers solutions for brand protection, brand enhancement and identification & insulation (thermal and electrical) problems. In order to provide world-class service to its customers, PRS Permacel set up a manufacturing facility based at Ambernath, which is located between Mumbai and Pune.
Damian asked Mr. Sushil K. Premchand: Could you please share with us: How did you manage to become who you are nowadays?
«I come from a family with a clear value system and got a good education in England.» He further mentioned his independent spirit, his friends and, network and the fact that he learned a lot about doing business during his work for Anderson.
What are typical problems for SMEs to enter the Indian market?
It needs a lot of time and you must be prepared in your mind that it will take time to launch a business. «Switzerland has watches to tell the time and Indians have the time». He further mentioned that one should have an open mind and also the right products or services to the right price.
Sushil Premchand described India in three words: complex, difficult and a lot of opportunities.
– Written by Rémy Thrier and Dario Flückiger
Thomaskutty Sebastian and Gabriele Lorini from PIT Solutions – Digital Transformation and Offshoring to India
PIT Solution AG is a Swiss-based company with over 400 employees in Kerala (India) and six employees in Zurich (Switzerland) that focuses on providing IT offshoring capabilities for SMEs and invests in start-ups. Typical projects include continuous development of large-scale web platforms, web or mobile-apps, e-Commerce as well as internal projects i.e. internal product and strategic investments.
The basic principle is that the client is only in contact with the PIT team in Switzerland which forwards the project to a project manager in India who assembles the team. As a result, there are no language barriers and the service is guaranteed at an affordable price to the same quality and to a fraction of a Swiss agency price.
It is very important for PIT Solution AG to engage with and be close to its employees, thus every year they visit their employees in India, organize team events to promote and build personal relationships, and as a reward for good work (in addition to the salary increase), invite employees to Switzerland to also enhance cultural exchange.
– Written by Timothy Triebold and Rosina Genovese
Gabriele Lorini (left) and Thomaskutty Sebastian (right), PIT Solutions AG