2025-11-24

In this exclusive interview, Jashan Bhumkar, Director of Soujanya Group, sheds light on the key challenges facing API manufacturing in India, the factors contributing to dependency on imported APIs, emerging trends in pharma manufacturing and supply chains, Soujanya’s approach to innovation, the company’s broader vision, and more.

Q. Could you share the journey of Soujanya’s diversification into life sciences? How is the group leveraging its core expertise in specialty chemistry to expand into pharmaceuticals, excipients, and CDMO partnerships?

Jashan Bhumkar: Soujanya’s journey into life sciences is a natural evolution of our 40-year legacy in pigments, dyes, and specialty chemical formulations. We have always been at the intersection of chemistry and precision manufacturing, and the shift into pharma was guided by both market opportunity and internal capability. Our deep-rooted expertise in process optimisation, handling of regulated substances such as FD&C colours and resin-free esters, gave us a head start—especially in developing excipients, actives, and advanced intermediates.

Today, we’re actively leveraging this backbone to offer CDMO services, particularly for complex intermediates and specialty excipients, while ensuring full regulatory documentation support and rapid project turnaround. Our agility is what differentiates us.

Q. How is Soujanya Life Sciences approaching innovation in API and excipient development?

Jashan Bhumkar: Our approach to innovation is two-fold—scientific rigour and customer intimacy. We focus on niche APIs and high-value excipients where formulation challenges or global supply gaps exist. For example, we’re developing esters specially designed for derma and ophthalmic applications, and exploring novel chemistries for upcoming blockbuster APIs.

We’ve also adopted a fast-fail, fast-scale philosophy: our in-house pilot facilities enable us to validate molecules rapidly, and our partnerships with contract manufacturing sites ensure seamless scale-up. IP respect, regulatory alignment, and customer co-creation are embedded into every innovation project. 

Q. How is Soujanya Life Sciences building global partnerships, and could you share any recent collaborations that have helped strengthen your position in the life sciences sector?

Jashan Bhumkar: Soujanya Group has sales and presence in over 50 countries, with long-standing relationships with customers and distributors. That perspective and reach definitely help in the new vertical as well. We’ve focused on building trust through performance, transparency, and responsiveness. Our partnerships span from mid-sized formulation companies to large multinational pharma players.

Q. Are there specific regions or markets you are targeting for international expansion?

Jashan Bhumkar: We’re strategically targeting regulated and semi-regulated markets where there is demand for India-origin, high-quality intermediates and excipients. The US, EU, and Latin America are key priorities.

Q. How do you plan to compete with well-established global API manufacturers in regulated markets? 

Jashan Bhumkar: We don’t aim to compete by being the cheapest — we aim to be the most responsive, collaborative, and agile partner in the supply chain. Our value proposition lies in our speed-to-market, ability to handle specialty chemistries, and full support on documentation, validation, and tech transfer.

Moreover, our scale is deliberately modular—we’re building flexible, campaign-based capacities that can respond to both developmental and commercial needs. This allows us to serve regulated markets with confidence while still being cost-competitive.

Q. What is Soujanya’s approach to scale operations in a sustainable and environmentally-responsible manner?  

Jashan Bhumkar: Given our legacy business in colorants, we have always said “green is one of our most favourite colours.” Sustainability is non-negotiable for us. We’re investing in green chemistry principles—solvent recovery, water recycling, and zero liquid discharge are standard in all future expansions.

We also source our products responsibly and ensure complete traceability throughout our supply chain. For us, being environmentally responsible is not just about compliance—it’s a reputational pillar and an ethical commitment. 

Q. What are the key challenges facing API manufacturing in India, and how is Soujanya Life Sciences addressing them?

Jashan Bhumkar: The biggest challenges are volatility in raw material pricing, regulatory unpredictability, and dependence on imported intermediates. Many Indian API players struggle to backward-integrate due to capital or technological constraints.

At Soujanya, we’re addressing this by developing key starting materials in-house, establishing long-term contracts for sensitive intermediates, and investing in continuous process improvements. Our chemical know-how, especially in dye and ester chemistry, gives us leverage in managing impurity profiles and synthesis efficiency.

Q. India still relies heavily on imported APIs, especially from China, for finished drug production. In your view, what factors contribute to this dependency, and what steps are necessary to make India more self-reliant in raw materials?  

Jashan Bhumkar: The dependency is a result of historical cost optimisation, a lack of upstream integration, and underinvestment in fermentation and basic chemicals. China scaled up early and consolidated its position with aggressive pricing and infrastructure support.

To change this, India needs to: encourage the development of domestic raw material parks with plug-and-play infrastructure; offer fiscal incentives for upstream intermediates (not just APIs); build technical partnerships between large pharma companies and agile players like us; and streamline environmental clearances to be faster and more transparent.

I recently had the opportunity to present these views at a pharma roundtable organised by the Maharashtra Industry, Trade, and Investment Facilitation Cell (MAITRI).

Q. What is your opinion of the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for APIs and intermediates? How is it impacting your business and the wider industry’s efforts to boost domestic manufacturing and reduce reliance on imports? 

Jashan Bhumkar: The PLI scheme is a step in the right direction—but like many government initiatives, its real impact depends on the speed of implementation and clarity around eligibility. For companies like ours, which are innovating in intermediates and excipients, the current scope is a bit narrow. Most of the incentives under the scheme are for high-volume, commoditised intermediates. In some cases, the largest capacity being planned in India is still smaller than the smallest capacity of major Chinese players.

I would like to see more focus on high-value molecules and those that give a global positioning to India.

That said, the scheme has energized the ecosystem and sent a strong signal that India is serious about pharma independence. It is up to the private sector now to leverage this momentum. We are evaluating applications under a few categories, particularly for import-substitute intermediates and excipients. 

Q. Looking ahead, what emerging trends in pharma manufacturing and supply chain, do you believe, will shape the industry over the next decade?

Jashan Bhumkar: Some key trends we’re preparing for include the following:

            •           Decentralised, modular manufacturing—smaller, faster, more agile plants

            •           Digital traceability and end-to-end supply chain visibility

            •           Green synthesis routes and ESG compliance becoming a commercial differentiator

            •           Rising demand for specialty excipients, clean-label ingredients, and custom CDMO services

            •           Convergence of pharma with nutrition and wellness, especially around microbiome health and probiotics

We’re adapting to these by building capabilities not just in APIs, but in formulation aids, delivery systems, and next-gen excipients.

Q. What is the broader vision for Soujanya Life Sciences within the pharma ecosystem over the next five to 10 years?

Jashan Bhumkar: Our vision is to be a trusted, agile, and innovation-led partner to global pharma and nutraceutical companies—especially in intermediates, excipients, esters, and specialty formulation aids. We’re not trying to be the biggest; we’re trying to be the most respected and responsive.

Over the next decade, we aim to:

            •           build dedicated CDMO capacity with global regulatory compliance.

            •           co-own DMFs for complex intermediates and newer APIs.

            •           be at the forefront of India’s self-reliance movement in pharma ingredients.

            •           integrate backwards and forwards—from core chemistry to patient-centric formulations.

Soujanya Life Sciences is not just a business unit—it’s our way of contributing to a healthier and more resilient world, rooted in India’s scientific excellence.