Amneal Pharmaceuticals is an American publicly traded generics and specialty pharmaceutical company, headquartered in Bridgewater, New Jersey, and with deep roots in India.
While the portfolio started in Generics – and is one of the largest generic API manufacturers in the United States – – it has grown to encompass many new lines of business including institutional injectables and biosimilars. Today the Ameal portfolio has expanded to cover approximately 270 generic and specialty pharmaceuticals.
For the last 18 years, Rushabh Shah has been an integral part of this growth story. Now Deputy General Manager, Strategic Sourcing and Supply Management at Amneal Pharmaceuticals, he has been part of a procurement function that grew from just three people to over 70.
Rushabh is proud that Amneal are a leading company in the United States with a reputation for “fantastic quality and zero FDA issues”, yet cost containment is a top priority at the moment. “Cost is extremely important to us. Since COVID things have changed significantly” he says,
In order to maintain quality during a challenging inflationary period, Amneal’s strategy is to consolidate vendors where possible.
“We don’t have a different vendor for every product, we typically have six or seven products with a vendor” and seeks their support during R&D phase in order to keep the budget as low as possible when the product is filed.
M&A as a strategy for Cost Containment and increasing speed-to-market
Rushabh says that vendor consolidation is no longer enough.
“For speciality generics, if Amneal were to develop the entire product, the whole process might take two years from development to regulatory filing timelines.”
Instead, they find suppliers who need help with Research & Development to get the product to a commercial stage and partner with them. The new strategy is closer to Merger & Acquisition (M&A) with strategic partners, and managing payment terms based on the vendor hitting specific milestones in the drug development process.
For more on this, read Rushabh Shah’s article Why M&A can be the most Cost-Effective Strategy for Pharma Manufacturing
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