Three Days, One Argument: How the Conference Traced the Full Arc of a Modern Pharma Plant

Under the banner “Future of Pharma Manufacturing: Trends Transforming the Industry,” the knowledge programme moved deliberately from the particle to the pallet — upstream engineering on Day 1, packaging and logistics on Day 2, and strategic roadmaps on Day 3, Kalyan S Maramganti of Neo Science Hub, Reports.

If the exhibition floor answered the question of what to buy, the conference programme answered why. Structured across the three days as a single continuous narrative rather than a set of disconnected talks, the sessions walked the audience through the entire life cycle of a dosage form — from the physics of the powder to the resilience of the supply chain that ultimately delivers the finished medicine.

Day 1 — Advanced particle engineering and the digital plant

The programme opened upstream. Klaus Moeller, Global Head of Sales and Service for Process Technology Pharma at Glatt, delivered the anchor session on advanced particle engineering, making the case that fluidised-bed processes and multiparticulate systems are central to optimising the bioavailability, taste-masking and stability of solid oral dosage forms. It was a fitting start: particle design is where formulation performance is quietly won or lost, long before a tablet reaches a packaging line.

The focus then shifted from the physical to the digital. Kushagra Goyal, Digital lead at ACG Engineering, argued in a session titled “Unlocking the Hidden Factory” that many plants run well below their true potential because their equipment operates in isolated, analogue silos. His prescription — IoT-connected sensors, real-time Overall Equipment Effectiveness metrics and digital batch records — framed capacity as something to be recovered through instrumentation rather than bought through capital-intensive expansion.

The afternoon turned to artificial intelligence, and notably refused to oversell it. Anil Arora of Anivea Pharmaceuticals Consultancy Services opened with a case study on navigating AI-driven digital pharma; a panel moderated by Shirish Belapure of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance then interrogated the realistic limits of machine learning in quality and operations. Practitioners including Girish Kottapalli of Laurus Labs and Sandeep Raktate of Amneal Pharmaceuticals returned repeatedly to a sober point — that an algorithm is only as trustworthy as the historical process data beneath it — while voices from Sai Life Sciences and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories stressed that models deployed under global GMP must be validated, and must complement rather than replace human quality assurance.

Day 2 — Packaging integrity, sustainability and supply-chain resilience

The second day reframed packaging as strategy rather than afterthought. In a keynote, Chakravarthi AVPS — Global Ambassador for the World Packaging Organisation and Chairman of the Federation of Pharma Entrepreneurs (Telangana & AP) — argued that sustainable packaging should be pursued not as a compliance obligation but as a route to patient safety and brand security. The theme carried into a panel on counterfeit medicines moderated by Abhay Kumar Srivastava of Mankind Pharma, where specialists including Prasad Satam of Aurobindo Pharma reviewed the practical armoury against falsification: track-and-trace integration, holographic and structural features, and barrier materials that reduce environmental load without compromising product protection.

The afternoon moved downstream to logistics. Dr. Sanjit Singh Lamba, Managing Partner of Trillyum Consulting and Advisory, presented a case study on building resilient supply networks amid global volatility before moderating a panel drawing on leaders from Aurobindo, Hetero, AAPM Lifesciences and Jodas Expoim. The discussion was refreshingly operational — cold-chain temperature control, last-mile delivery risk, and supplier-reliability frameworks designed to pre-empt the API and packaging-material shortages that have destabilised global supply in recent years.

Day 3 — Market projections & 2030 roadmap

The final day lifted its gaze to the horizon. Abhijeet Kale of Coherent Market Insights presented a market analysis projecting the growth of India’s pharma processing and packaging machinery industry across 2026 to 2033, setting up a closing panel — “India Pharma 2030: Strategic Roadmap for Processing, Machinery and Manufacturing Excellence” — moderated by his colleague Mohit Shrivastava. Panelists from Biological E, Aurobindo Pharma, Novartis and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories converged on a single, demanding conclusion: that moving up the value chain by 2030 will require a coordinated effort to modernise plants, automate quality control and, critically, train a workforce capable of running advanced systems.

At a glance — the conference schedule

Session times as listed in the official conference agenda; corroborated in part by organiser and exhibitor communications.