“Faster” seems to be the operative word for Praveen Rao Akkinepally, Managing Director, AstraZeneca Pharma India Ltd, as the biopharmaceutical drugmaker looks to bring global innovations into India, closer to their international launches. The pathway to this is through greater clinical trial participation from India, Akkinepally told businessline in an exclusive interaction, as he completes a year at the top-job.
How has a year at the helm been for you?
I’ve been with AstraZeneca for most of my career, well over 20 years. What we focused on globally is to push the boundaries of science to deliver life-changing medicines, which of course sounds very good on paper. But what has been remarkable is how those words have translated into some incredible breakthroughs.We’ve been able to bring that global innovation to India. We’ve had, in the financial year, over 11 approvals …in areas where there is a huge unmet need in India. The most important highlight over the last year is that we have been able to bring innovation faster to India.India has increasingly become a very important strategic market for us globally - from a commercial perspective and our operations. We now have almost 5,000 people in India across different areas - one of the largest footprints across the world. For me, as somebody born and raised here, though I’ve spent the last 20 to 30 years in the US, it’s been incredibly meaningful to contribute to that story.
