BANGALORE: SAP India today announced that pharma major and its long time customer, Lupin Limited has chosen to upgrade its existing SAP platform to SAP ERP 6.0, the fastest adopted ERP release in the history of SAP.

According to the press release, SAP ERP 6.0 would enable Lupin to dramatically leverage their existing technology investments to ensure quality and compliance across the organization as well as support global growth plans to build a foundation for the future.

Lupin, one of the top five pharmaceuticals companies in India; has moved up the value chain by carving formidable market leadership positions in the Cardiovascular, CNS, Diabetes Care, Anti-Asthama and other therapy having built on its legacy and strengths as the global market leader in the Anti-tuberculosis drugs and Cephalosporins space.

An early adopter of SAP, it was but a natural choice for Lupin to enhance its current capabilities by upgrading to the SAP ERP 6.0 platform. The company will also adopt the business intelligence platform provided by Business Objects to gain immediate access to accurate and timely business information and drive informed decision-making. SAP ERP 6.0 will further support Lupin in consolidating its position in advanced markets across the globe, service new therapy areas & business segments, establish on-shore presence in select markets and improve operational efficiencies in core business processes while bringing down interim costs.

Commenting on the development, Dr Kamal Sharma, Managing Director, Lupin Limited, said, “Lupin has had an impressive & steady growth over the last 5 years; we have successfully established our presence in the advanced markets of the United States and expanded our footprint into other major markets such as the European Union, Japan, South Africa and Australia. We find an ideal partner in SAP who would provide us with the necessary technology platform to institutionalize quality assurance and compliance across diverse markets. With this upgrade to SAP ERP 6.0, we are confident that we will be able to better leverage our capabilities, and create operational efficiencies and economies of scale across segments and markets to support our global growth plans.”

“Lupin’s strategic initiative to partner with Bristlecone to upgrade their SAP landscape will create a global, standardized, scalable and flexible platform for their proposed Supply Chain Management initiatives, which will help them, achieve operational efficiencies and position them well to meet their growth plans globally. I wish them the very best in this endeavour.” said Anand Mahindra, Chairman, Bristlecone, a Mahindra & Mahindra Group company

Pharmaceutical companies encourage aligning transformational plans to stimulate growth

The introduction of the product patent regime on January 1, 2005, opened the Indian economy to global pharma companies that in turn established R&D facilities and clinical trial centers here to cut drug delivery costs. This propelled domestic pharma companies to realign their strategies while simultaneously strengthening their R&D activities, foray into the global generics market, contract research and relatively untapped segments. Three years later, prompted by challenges of an economic slowdown, pharma companies have recognized that the need for the day is to hasten their transformational plans by investing in the right kind of IT infrastructure in order to achieve optimum levels of operational productivity, information access and regulatory compliance.

Supported by the flexible SAP NetWeaver technology platform, SAP’s life sciences solution provides a comprehensive set of targeted applications that maximizes return on R&D investments, significantly reduces risk and exposure, increases visibility into the business and streamlines complex processes. This helps in reengineering processes into industry leading practices that in turn enable strategic business process transformation.

“The Indian Pharmaceutical industry has enjoyed phenomenal growth over the years and is a $4.5-billion market now.  The industry has made effective use of technology to retain competitiveness, drive business efficiency and foster innovation,” said Ranjan Das, Managing Director, SAP Indian Subcontinent.  He added, “We are delighted to support Lupin in their aggressive growth plans and transnational reach.”