HMR's Kansas City operation accounts for 40 per cent of HMR's global profits, with a turnover of $3 billion (almost the size of the Indian market).

Chattopadhyay, who sees tremendous potential for HMR India as a global sourcing base (two products articaine hydrochloride and ramipril intermediates have already been selected), spoke to The Financial Express on a range of issues including how e-business will change the face of the pharmaceutical industry. Excerpts: The Financial Express: What makes the made-in-India professional tick?

S Chattopadhyay: There is now some kind of structural shift in capitalism and it is just not capital in the form of economic wealth/assets that defines everything. It is basically the intellectual wealth/assets that is getting more and more prominence and this is where India comes in. Indians are directly able to contribute to this process whether they come from India or not. At the senior-most levels, corporates are looking for very strong conceptual leaders who are creative and can create new kind of value out of intellectual skills. Whether it is Jim Wadia or Rajat Gupta, I think they are what they are because of such conceptual skills that have been their forte.

Would your new assignment include strategic planning for the Indian operations?

My job would not require me to directly involve myself with the Indian operations. Kansas City is Hoechst's strategic and launch site (the only one in the whole of America and the Asia Pacific) and my group is supposed to help all the 30-and-odd sites. So, we will assist these sites whenever they want to launch a product. Therefore, it will be more from the point of technology leadership that we would be involved, though not just with India.In terms of managerial control, I would, at present, confine myself to the North American operations, Kansas City in particular.

The value of this job is so high and it will be so demanding that I don't know whether I will be able to do justice to a $150 million set up here when there are issues concerning the $3 billion set-up there. How could HMR India play a bigger role in the group's global operations, given India's commitments on the patents front?

HMR India is one of those companies that is very proud of the market share of its key brands. We have also been lucky in getting a stream of new products. If this trend continues, by the time we have the post-GATT Indian market, HMR will be in a good position to get the best out of market share and demand for our products. We have to, however, watch how the Drug Prices Control Order evolves.

HMR has also created factories with excellent GMP and technical standards well accepted by global managers. There is, therefore, significant value addition that is going to take place from HMR when our low cost of production will be capitalised on. This means sourcing bulk drugs, intermediates and even formulations from India. Lot of products have been lined up for sourcing from the Ankleshwar facility for group companies globally. The registration issues for sourcing articaine hydrochloride and ramipril intermediates are already in process.

The first few steps for articaine Hcl will start this year itself and the process for ramipril will be completed by the end of next year. There are many more products lined up Do you see e-business reshaping the global pharmaceutical business and how is HMR gearing to face this challenge?With the Internet, the customers have the possibility of accessing information very fast. When that happens, the relationship between customers, doctors, hospitals would get redefined. Customers will also be very demanding in terms of the information that they need when they approach a pharmacist for an OTC or scheduled drug.

The Internet and e-commerce is going to network the different entities in the pharma industry in a different format altogether. E-business is going to affect demand evolution. The typical transaction (where demand is generated when medical representatives detail to doctors) will be replaced by different kinds of possibilities. That is bound to affect the manufacturing/selling company.

At Hoechst, e-business is essentially a managerial tool. At this point of time it basically entails internal customer service, response to customer queries, handling regulatory issues better etc. But I don't think e-business, per se, is going to fundamentally drive our business. Is there any plan to come back to India some day?

There is a significant disconnect between India and W Europe, Japan, etc. because of the latter's extreme focus on value. Therefore, for me it is important to watch, see what is happening in India between now and 2005. From 2010 onwards, I guess there will be real organic changes - a lot more structural changes. I guess that will affect MNCs and the Indian market. That will define whether I have the opportunity of coming back, depending on my evolution, the country's evolution and the company that I work for at that time (in every four-five years there is a merger).

The pharmaceuticals business is becoming more and more elitist.If you compare companies like Pfizer, Novartis, Bristol Myers & Squibb, it is not necessarily turnover but a very high profitability that maximises shareholder value. Pfizer with less than $10 billion turnover has a market cap that exceeds that of Merck, Sharpe & Dohme with a turnover of close to $25 billion. Therefore, Pfizer is a better role model for companies.

As far as Hoechst is concerned, when I joined the company we were a DM 50 billion company and today we are trying to divest the non-lifesciences assets and become a very profitable company.

And this is nothing but an extreme elitist drive where you are trying to become so focussed on value that the importance of a market is derived from the value that it can deliver.