A young entrepreneur's journey in pharma field

Over the past years, there is a change in the healthcare sector where women are heading powerful positions in different areas of health and medicines. Divya Shankar Soreddy, Director of Mac Labs Limited, has followed the path of her father and today she is running a drug manufacturing unit. She entered the pharmaceutical retail field since the age of eight. Divya, in an interview to Chitra Saikumar, expresses her journey as an entrepreneur and the step by step process she took to get recognised in the pharmaceutical industry. Excerpts from interview:

At a very young age, you entered the pharma industry. Can you share about your journey?

Before I start talking about my journey I would like to speak about my dad who because of whom I am here today, as it is not an easy journey to reach this platform at my age, that is I am 23 years old now. My father was an ex-army person and he was in army medical core. He started a small retail business once he got retired. Later he grew it to "Can" Level field (indicates whether resource leveling can be done on a resource) pan India and interstate. He was a Can to Sen Pharma as well. He has worked for many companies like Zydus cadila. I was in eighth standard when this retail store had started. It was a normal retail store. We worked very hard together. My dad was my inspiration looking at him I always wanted to be in the same field. I choose to do B Pharm and M Pharm as well. Now I am pursuing PhD. My education has always been along with my entrepreneurship journey. We worked 24 hours in our retail shop. I travelled pan India to every state and every place to get business.

Tell us about your start-up Avis Organics

Avis Organics Private Limited is a manufacturer company based on the National Industrial Classification (NIC) code of 24299 and is involved in the business activities related to this industry code such as manufacturing anti-freeze preparations, anti-knock preparations, composite diagnostic reagents, composite laboratory reagents, drawing ink, fine chemicals or chemical n.e.c., liquids for hydraulic transmission and many more. We created market which was our core strength. We slowly started this food unit. Avis Organics Private Limited was incorporated on May 11, 2016. It is classified as a non-government company and is registered at Registrar of Companies, Hyderabad. Its authorised share capital is Rs 9,00,000 and its paid-up capital is Rs 9,00,000. It is involved in manufacture of other chemical products. Avis Organic is an Ayurvedic form of medicinal formula which my grandmother used to make at home. In India most of us use home remedy.

What kind of marketing strategies have you used?

We were already recognised in the huge market pan India because of Sen Pharma, Zydus Cadila and that helped me market at least one piece or bottle to the customer. I had strength in my product. I got repeated orders; this is how my firm grew. Later I started drug manufacturing. I completed my B Pharm and to my surprise by that time I had already started manufacturing drugs.