Techno-Commercial ::

The pharmaceutical industry is facing the challenge of change on several fronts. Companies are restructuring following a spate of mergers and acquisitions worldwide. And in India, the year 2005 will mean compliance with international patent laws, thus redefining the way we do pharmaceutical business.

R & D requires two distinct sets of skills ::

• Research or Discovery Skills
• Techno - Commercial Skills

The need for Techno - Commercial skills are increasingly being felt by the industry now and are becoming important day-by-day for pharmaceutical R & D management.

Major Functions ::

• Project Management of Research Projects
• Financial evaluations of Discovery Projects
• Intellectual Property Protection (Patents)
• Licensing of Research Projects
• Financial Activities viz., budgeting, costing etc.

Project Management ::

With the increasing competition and reducing development time, companies are forced to adopt strong project management techniques. Techno - Commercial department manages all the projects, which essentially implies planning for the entire project and then mapping the progress with respect to milestones. This also involves evaluating new areas of drug discovery, keeping an eye on competitors and their profile.

Financial Evaluation ::

All the Research Projects are evaluated using Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) techniques like Augmented NPV. Value of a project is determined, keeping following parameters in mind viz. prevalence of disease, existing therapy, cost of therapy probability of success/failure, cost incurred in clinical trials etc.

Evaluation becomes important in order to know the commercial worth of the project. TCM has highly qualified MBA's & Science professionals having several years of experience who undertake this job.

Intellectual property protection ::

Intellectual Property has long been used as a source of competitive advantage. But today, in companies, it is generating substantial new revenues as a result of innovative licensing strategies and more effective management of intellectual asset portfolios.

In 2005, in keeping with WTO obligations, India will honour product patent. This will reduce the number of products available for marketing to Indian companies after 2005.

Torrent realized this scenario long back and has a fully functional Patent Cell with Doctorates, who are looking after all aspects of Intellectual property protection. Torrent has filed number of patents in all the major markets like India, USA, Europe, Japan etc.

Licensing ::

The conduct of business is, in large measure, a search for new opportunities. In the technology business, one searches for such opportunities in new technical capabilities and applications.

Licensing offers a way of getting to existing or new markets more quickly and at a lesser expense. The department is actively involved in licensing activities and has a fully functional team having member from diverse field of Management and Science. This team communicates with major International Pharmaceutical companies for licensing opportunities.

Financial Activities ::

Techno - Commercial department also has a costing cell having a Qualified Cost - Accountant looking after different financial aspects like budgeting, costing etc.