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CEO Spotlight: Vamsi Maddipatla, LAXAI
Inc.
By Sterling-Hoffman Life Sciences Journal
For him, offshore outsourcing related to R&D is the key to
accessing talent and getting to the market fast precedes cost
savings (in that order). His vision for the life sciences
industry is affordable drugs for everybody, even those without
health insurance. Vamsi Maddipatla, CEO of LAXAI Inc, discusses
with Sterling-Hoffman Life Sciences Journal on why he chose the
recession-proof health sector to work in, his motivation behind
founding LAXAI and the top three things he looks for when hiring
people to work for him.
Sterling-Hoffman Life Sciences Journal: Who is your greatest source of inspiration in the
life sciences industry? And in your life?
Vamsi Maddipatla: My work experience in
Pfizer and J&J as a Management Consultant was the inspiration to start a company to provide
services in the life sciences industry. My greatest inspiration
in life is Richard Branson.
SHLSJ: What would you be doing if you weren’t working in
the Life Sciences Industry?
VM: I would probably have started a company in the
healthcare sector. I believe in being in, or playing in a
recession-proof industry. I have a great desire to play a role
in transforming the healthcare system.
SHLSJ: Who were your role models when you joined the
industry?
VM: Richard Branson
SHLSJ: What changes have you noticed in yourself from
when you started the company to today?
VM: I have become patient and have a natural shock
absorber to deal with the dynamics of running a company. Time
has become very valuable and I can appreciate every minute of
the time I spend with my family and business. I can run a
business more efficiently and have got a lot of experience in
managing people. Business has become a game to play carefully,
which paves the way and gives you access to many more
opportunities to create employment and service a need.
SHLSJ: What motivated you to found LAXAI?
VM: I always wanted to be associated with drug discovery
and development, which is very critical to bringing new drugs to
market and is indirectly critical to improve the quality of life
as well as to save lives. I wanted to exploit my roots in India
as well as experience as a management consultant and presence in
the USA to provide services in two critical phases (discovery &
development) in the drug R&D. There are immediate and pressing
needs to bring new drugs to the market, at the same time reduce
the costs involved in doing so. This was a perfect opportunity
to go after and I did so by providing clinical data management
bio-statistics services and contract research drug development
services with our labs in India.
SHLSJ: What are the benefits of moving R&D offshore?
VM: There are a lot of benefits in moving R&D offshore to
countries like India. Often the work ‘offshore outsourcing’ is
directly mapped to the term ‘cheap labor and cost savings.’ The
case for R&D is very different. The major benefit of R&D
outsourcing offshore is the access to talent. The second benefit
to biopharma companies is reduced time to market i.e., more
molecules can be screened and developed and brought through CMC
section much faster. The third benefit is cost savings.
SHLSJ: What are the challenges that still need to be
overcome with offshore R&D?
VM: Not all areas in R&D can be outsourced even today.
There are competencies that do not exist with service providers
offshore. The other major challenge is protection of
intellectual property. Other challenges that exist are
accountability, transparency and efficient project management.
With R&D outsourcing increasing, it will reach a maturity level
that will overcome these challenges.
SHLSJ: Are more North American companies moving their
research overseas these days? Does this help accelerate the
discoveries being made in the Life Sciences industry?
VM: YES! 80% of the top 50 biopharma (companies) are
outsourcing R&D though it may be a very small component. Some
companies have taken a strategic decision to adopt R&D
outsourcing as a corporate strategy and some companies are
exploring this with pilot projects and a few companies have a
presence in countries like India to manage the R&D efforts in
the respective countries. This definitely helps companies bring
more molecules to clinical faster with lesser costs that
directly increases the hit ratio of molecules in less time.
SHLSJ: Where do you think you have outsmarted your
competitors?
VM: I don’t think we have outsmarted our competitors, but
our positioning and business model differentiates us. We are
providing services to address the capacity shortages and
bottlenecks in the drug R&D lifecycle with a global delivery
model.
We are local and also offshore with capabilities in both
discovery and clinical research. We are perfectly positioned
with the right services whereby biopharma companies can work
with a local company to ensure that we are accountable as well
as realize the cost savings of an offshore company utilizing our
delivery in India. We are well positioned to exploit the
tremendous R&D spending both in the US and offshore in India.
SHLSJ: What part does the life sciences industry play to
improve the society?
VM: Life science companies play a very vital role in
improving the quality of life and also in saving life. Without
these companies, the average life span would not have increased
from 47 in 1900, to 70 – 80 years currently. However the cost of
these drugs needs to come down and they need to be affordable to
common people without health insurance.
SHLSJ: What initiatives is Laxai taking to address these
issues?
VM: We at LAXAI want to play a role in conducting R&D and
clinical research in the most cost-effective manner working with
biopharma companies, whereby affordable drugs can be released in
the market.
SHLSJ: Tell me about your core initiatives right now –
what are some of the focus areas for 2008?
VM: We are expanding our presence to more locations in
the US to include NC, MA and CA. We want to work with biopharma
companies whereby we provide them with a local presence and
create captive R&D teams and facilities in India. Our major
focus areas in 2008 are medicinal and process chemistry,
clinical research supported with end-to-end clinical data
management and Biostatistics.
SHLSJ: What kind of people can make the best CEOs in this
industry?
VM: CEOs with a passion to contribute to quality work can
only succeed. CEOs with a vision and patience in the industry
can succeed. This industry is capital intensive and quality
driven. CEOs in this industry need to believe in this.
SHLSJ: How do you hire the best people? What are the top
3 things you look for when hiring?
VM: We invest in creating an organization and culture
that attracts and retains people. Once a talented person joins
our company we give no chance for the person to be unhappy.
We look for proven experience, leadership, creativity and a
commitment to succeed. If we hire people with these qualities,
the company is bound to succeed. I believe that if the company
is positioned well to capture the opportunity with the right
business model, then the right people are the formula for
success.
SHLSJ: Is finding life sciences professionals a
challenge?
VM: Experienced life sciences (professionals) are hard to
find, but creative and experienced professionals are a tough
find.
SHLSJ: What trends do you see in the life sciences
industry and what opportunities are in store for your company?
VM: R&D outsourcing is bound to increase by many folds,
which we perceive as a great opportunity, as we are well geared
up. Another major opportunity is the need for companies to
submit clinical data to the FDA that is CDISC compliant. This is
going to drive biopharma companies to adopt clinical data
management and electronic data capture, which again is one of
our major service areas today.
Vamsi Maddipatla is Founder and CEO of LAXAI, a leading
provider of drug research and development services with
blended-shore sourcing and clinical data management services for
the life sciences industry across Americas, Europe and Asia.
Throughout his career, he has demonstrated success in both
strategic development and key operations roles. Vamsi has
developed and expanded the capability and capacity of sales and
marketing teams, strategic market research and business analysis
divisions, and business development departments. He has been
responsible for planning activities in leading life sciences
organizations to realize financial and operational returns on
investment. Vamsi has worked as a Management Consultant with a
focus on enterprise technology planning, providing services to
Deloitte & Touche, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Merrill Lynch
on selecting and implementing business processes to increase
customer profitability. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in
Electronics and Instrumentation and Master’s degree in Computer
Science from Fairleigh Dickinson University. Vamsi is also the
Founder of OSR Solutions, a consulting/services company started
in 2001 that focuses on information management for the life
sciences and healthcare industries. For interview feedback,
contact Vamsi at
vamsi@laxai.com
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