@ Vikash Sharma | Sr Journalist
Human Biosciences Inc. (HBS), a leading global biotechnology company, specializing in collagen based products for wound care management, is soon going to expand its India operations. HBS was established in the year 1989 by Dr. Manoj K Jain and develops, manufactures, and distributes its products worldwide. HBS is based in the United States of America with offices in Europe and India. HBS has a state of the art manufacturing facility in Maryland USA and Ahmedabad, India. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced HBS, like many other businesses across the world, to re-strategize its operations. The HBS plans to use its innovations in biotechnology to aid India’s fight against the pandemic. The post COVID era will be a completely different world for the Biotech industry and new challenges stare at the industry.
Dr. Rohan K Jain is responsible for the HBS Global company’s overall operations with a focus on research and development. Dr. Jain has more than 10 years of experience in the medical device industry. He has supervised and conducted extensive research in the collagen, biomaterials, and protein space resulting in the release of numerous products to the market. Additionally, he oversees an expansive pipeline of new products for the company. Dr. Jain was also a capital markets attorney at Shearman & Sterling LLP. He received his Doctorate in Law and his MBA from New York University. He received his Bachelor’s degrees in Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science and his Master’s in Engineering Management from Johns Hopkins University. He is a member of the New York and Maryland bars.
- India is facing a devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. How HBS can support India’s fight against COVID-19?
a. Covid’s impact reaches far beyond just the infected. The huge stress covid has placed on the healthcare system has forced hospitals to make tough decisions on who to treat. Even through the pandemic, people get hurt every day. We aim to bring these patients out of the hospitals and back into their everyday lives faster than ever before with our advanced wound care technology. - HBS had recently announced to expand its India operations. Can you elaborate on your plan about India and specifically in the DIGITAL?
a. India is a huge market with a lot of people who need our technology. We are currently working on expanding our local manufacturing capability in order to meet that demand. At the same time, post covid realities have made it a lot more difficult for patients to access care. In order to service that hidden demand we are implementing a new digital platform which will allow us and our network of medical professionals to interact directly with the patients who need our help. - How the innovations in biotech can help Indian peoples ?
a. Since World War 2, the standard in woundcare has been to simply protect the wound and provide a moist healing environment. New biotech innovations such as collagen have allowed us to directly interact with the wound by providing it with all the necessary materials it needs to heal itself. With this technology, Indian patients will spend less time in the hospitals, endure fewer amputations, and pay less money for their healthcare. - Post COVID-19 era what are the specific areas HBS will focus in India?
a. We believe that people should not have to choose between their lives, their livelihoods, and their limbs. To that end, we intend to focus on delivering the world’s most cutting edge woundcare technology directly to patients at prices they can afford. - Apart from your popular wound care
- products are you going to introduce any new product in India? Can you elaborate on the strategy for India like investment, manpower etc.
a. For now, we plan to focus on expanding the reach of our existing wound care products from our factory in Gujarat. However, we have a huge pipeline of ready to launch new products which we plan to introduce as our footprint grows. - How the Covid-19 pandemic has affected over all global business of HBS?
a. We have been fortunate in that our factories have not closed for a single day due to the pandemic and we have not had a single case of community spread. We felt it was very important for us to continue producing these critical products for our patients and we are proud that we have been able to do so safely. - Keeping the pandemic restrictions and local lockdowns in mind how have you adopted digital strategy for smooth operation?
a. We have a global team, and so it was critical for us to learn to adapt to all the travel restrictions in order to keep our operation running. We ultimately implemented new digital project and inventory management systems so that we could support a number of newly remote positions. - Please elaborate on the pre and post COVID-19 era challenges for HBS and the Biotech industry?
a. The biggest challenge in our industry is always how do we heal the most wounds. Pre covid, that meant simply finding out how to provide the best product at the best price. Back then, it was enough to simply supply hospitals and clinics with product that they could pass on to their patients. Post covid, many patients are no longer willing or able to access these traditional channels of care. Now, the challenge has become building new healthcare infrastructure to reach these underserved patients.
