Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw - Driving The Future of Biotech Research : Kiran Mazumdar- Shaw
Kiran Mazumdar- Shaw
Chairman & MD, BioconKiran Mazumdar-Shaw, is now the face of the innovation-led biopharmaceuticals sector in the country. Biocon's R&D operations are minimally manual, while its research environment uses mainly software. Biocon has homegrown ERP applications, developed and customized according to its needs. The organization takes care of intellectual property-related issues on high-end security software, which ensures that security mechanisms are in place. It comes as no surprise then that Mazumdar-Shaw places a high premium on her CIO who is at the forefront of most critical production processes.
Interview Questions
- Q.CIO: You are the face of the biotechnology sector in India today. What had you envisaged for yourself? Have you reached your goals?
- Q.You are a scientist first and then an industrialist. Does such a duality interfere in business planning?
- Q.In what circumstances did you tap IT toward building your company? How did you integrate the usage of IT in your processes?
- Q.How do you make decisions on an implementation of a new technology that your CIO may be convinced about? Is cost an important factor?
- Q.Can you shed some light on the extent of software usage in your research processes? Has it helped improve quality? And how has business benefited?
- Q.What role has IT played in terms of innovation? Do you plan on new products based on your IT capability and the expertise of your CIO?
- Q.How would you describe the CIO’s involvement in Biocon’s growth?
- Q.Syngene leverages the convergence of IT and biotechnology. How does this marriage add value to your processes?
- Q.Do you agree with the idea of the CIO being given free rein to implement processes or that he should have to convince the CEO and CFO?
- Q.Inventory management is another important aspect of business processes. Does IT help Biocon in this domain?
- Q.How do you see the Biocon group maintain its top slot for innovations as well as processes?
Full Interview with Kiran Mazumdar- Shaw
There can never be finite goals. Achieving one set of goals results in a new set of goals. I am proud of what I have achieved in the country, but I believe that I have a long way to go in terms of global objectives.
I have always used my scientific background in addressing business opportunities. In a sector like biotechnology, this is vital. I would like to add that without a scientific background, it would be difficult to identify research opportunities and strategize on them. Such an approach is core to our business.
Information technology has been a powerful means to build MIS and ERP systems in our enterprise. In addition, we have used IT effectively in our R&D programs to track, monitor and integrate our research efforts with a view to preventing duplication and with the key objective of expediting programs to commercialization. Our production is also highly automated and calls for IT support. So, we do use IT extensively throughout our organization.
Whenever we opt for various IT systems, it has always been thought through by a group of people. I am glad that we invested in many of these systems when we did, as we have built on them over the years. Today, we are at a stage where we are transitioning from our in-house ERP system to a commercial one for regulatory reasons. Here, we are at a crossroads as each standard system has its plus and minus points. And we decide on the appropriate system based on the advice of our CIO and external consultants.
Yes, we use IT and special software extensively in process control, project planning and, as I mentioned, in dovetailing our R&D programs with other aspects of regulatory compliances and commercialization. IT is a fundamental part of our research - our entire research and development information is based on Lotus Notes.
We have not leveraged IT to deliver on innovation as most of our programs are based on protein therapeutics where IT is used as a tool to construct clones, but not to develop new drug molecules. Bioinformatics and IT tend to play an important role in innovations that involve designing smaller, new molecules. Having said that, we have now begun using IT to engineering proteins, especially in conjugating PEG (polyethylene glycol) molecules, etcetera.
The CIO has had a key and an integral role to play at Biocon, for all the aforementioned reasons. Moreover, an ERP infrastructure for a biotech company is far more complex, and calls for a competent CIO to address these needs in a customized manner.
Syngene uses a lot of bioinformatics and CAD to design new molecules for a number of customers. This is followed with in vitro and in vivo studies to confirm optimal design.
We need the CIO to have an independent interface with the CEO and CFO to invest in, and implement, IT systems.
Of course, this is an important part of MIS and ERP systems.
We plan to achieve this by ensuring that we have a well-networked and integrated information system. We believe in sharing and leveraging knowledge. Without IT, this would be impossible.
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