17/05/2013
"Our Focus is on R&D" - says Dr. Muhammed Majeed
Sami Labs Limited (SAMI) is a pioneer in the development of herbal product extractions which have found wide ranging use in pharma, functional foods and nutraceuticals. In this interview with Food Marketing and Technology editor, Rajeshwari Kurup, SAMI founder and managing director, Dr. Muhammed Majeed speaks about the company's orientation towards research and innovation as well as its subsequent emergence as a quality products supplier in the nutraceutical business.
Q: SAMI is known for its innovative application based products that find use in the functional food, nutraceuticals and pharma industry. What was the vision behind the company’s growth?
Dr. Majeed's response
We are an R&D based manufacturing and marketing company with our focus set on innovation. In the formative years, we had prioritised our research mainly on development of indigenous technology for production of healthcare products mostly for the expanding nutraceutical markets in USA.
Emphasis was given for R&D on products with potential for use as traditional medicines as an alternate form of therapy. The basic underlying idea was to offer people dietary supplements that can assure them of a healthy life, especially at an age when the human body needs these essentials.
As we started growing, the R&D efforts were directed towards development of fine and specialty chemicals, biotechnology products, tissue cultured plant raw materials, cosmetic ingredients and food additives, culminating in drug discovery areas. An important area of SAMi’s focus is in giving value addition to: (a) industrial wastes (b) known spice products; and, (c) derivatisation of known molecules for improved efficacy.
We started manufacturing in 1991, with our R&D centre as the backbone of the company. The corporate R&D centre and offices at Bangalore have been functioning since 1998. The company has received many export excellence awards regularly and in 2002 received the National Award from DSIR for excellence in Industrial R&D.
The production facilities received GMP certification from NSF (USA) in 2007 and also successfully passed USFDA inspection in the year 2011.
Q: Sami Labs has focussed intensely on R&D. The awards it has won are testimony to the success of this approach. Is this R&D orientation Sami Labs’ distinguishing feature?
Dr. Majeed's response
The various functional divisions of R&D at SAMI are phytochemistry, synthetic chemistry, biological research, analytical R&D, formulation(dosage and cosmetic) R&D, tissue culture, regulatory affairs, pilot plant & biotechnology, food technology R&D and nano fibre technology.
Our products are treated as pharmaceuticals during production and for analytical and quality control purposes. They undergo testing by modern equipments like HPLC, GC, AAS, ICP-OES, FTIR, LC-MS/MS, GC-MS/MS and NMR. All products undergo tests for heavy metals, residual solvents, aflatoxins, pesticide analysis, and microbial analysis by validated and pharmacopoeial analytical procedures. The analytical R&D division has a major role in the quality control and quality assurance of the products.
All manufacturing processes are developed in-house by the R&D research centre. Also newer ideas in R&D innovations emanate through close interaction with Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA as well as being Industrial Associate Member of Princeton University through its affiliate Sabinsa Corporation.
Our work on Forskolin from the plant ‘Coleus forskohlii’ is a success story involving all the divisions of the R&D. Starting from mass cultivation, through development of high yielding variety, improved extraction technique, manufacture of Pharma grade active, clinical documentation and trails culminating in DCGI approval for an ophthalmic drug were examples of the multifaceted activities that Sami Labs has been doing which makes it a unique R&D set up.
Q: How do you rate India vis-a-vis the world as for investments and focus on R&D is concerned? What do you think are the bottlenecks in India?
Dr. Majeed's response
In western and developed countries, the investment on R&D is about 10 to 15 percent of the annual turnover. Major companies in the world recognise that R&D should be an integral part of the business, essential for new products development, for increasing IP portfolio, for getting an edge over their competitors and so on. In India except for a few reputed companies (mostly pharmaceutical companies), R&D is only a cosmetic appendage. R&D efforts are often regarded as a waste and therefore companies do not venture into putting their limited resources on R&D.
However, Sami Labs, from its inception recognised the potential of in-house R&D and spent substantial amounts over the years to have a full fledged multidisciplinary R&D. The spending on R&D has also gradually increased over the years. For example in 2011 our R&D expenditure is 6.26 percent of the total turnover. In one year we have even spent 9.8 percent of the turnover on R&D. In the Indian context this R&D spending is very high.
One of the advantage that Sami Labs has is its global marketing presence. As a pioneer and as a quality products supplier in the nutraceutical business, Sami Labs enjoys the confidence of the customers and a two way exchange happens: the customer bringing his requirements and R&D developing a product to meet the requirement. Our company is able to invest substantially in R&D because of the confidence that there is always a market for the R&D developed products.
Q: What are the products that SAMI has to offer the Indian food processing industry?
Dr. Majeed's response
Our products include standardised herbal extracts, fine chemicals, specialty chemicals, biotech products, functional food supplements, food additives and extracts produced by supercritical carbon-dioxide extraction technique. The company in a nutshell specialises in nutraceutical and cosmeceutical products for healthcare applications.
There are several products that are already offered to the food processing industries in India and abroad and many more are in the pipeline. All the nutraceutical products that the company has developed through R&D can go into functional foods or functional beverages such as health drinks and sports drinks.
Q: How do you see the nutraceutical market in the country? The functional food/dietary supplement market is also pretty nascent. What do you think are the prospects here?
Dr. Majeed's response
The market for the nutraceuticals is gradually increasing due to media pe*******on and public awareness that nutraceuticals play an important role in prevention of life style diseases or postponing their occurrence by a few years. The public also have come to accept that nutraceuticals by a large are without side effects, especially the botanical supplements. Nutraceuticals are here to stay and will grow faster as seen by increasing number of big and small players and even multinationals entering this segment.
Q: Do you think that the Indian Consumer has a mind-block on spending for functional food/dietry supplements due to the popularity of traditional recipes?
Dr. Majeed's response
For the majority of Indians price is an important factor. The low-income group certainly cannot afford the price of functional foods and they cannot go beyond their traditional food. The affluent may prefer to buy the high end imported brands. Only the educated middle class may go for the functional foods/dietary supplements. Institutions like CFTRI are doing commendable work on trying to introduce functional ingredients into traditional recipes but the message has not yet reached general public.
Q: What are Sami Labs’ future plans specifically in relation to the food ingredient and nutraceutical sector?
Dr. Majeed's response
Sami Labs will continue to be in the forefront of nutraceuticals manufacture and marketing. Through its associate company Sami Direct, Sami Labs has already made inroads into promoting functional food ingredients. For example, spirulina which is rich in essential minerals carotenoids, proteins and micronutrients has been extensively marketed for the consumer to make their own functional foods such as adding to traditional recipes.
Functional food ingredients for most common ailments like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, eye health, hepato-protection, joint pain, obesity and even cancer are available in the nutraceutical domain. Sami Labs has developed and is marketing products for these disease and will continue to do so.
An area, which is not new to Sami Labs is to take up traditional knowledge based raw materials of other countries and cring them to the market with sufficient evidences for its efficacy and safety (e.g. Gaf fruit (Momordica cochincinensis) from Vietnam and the Black Ginger (Kaempferia parviflora) from Malaysia). Sami Labs will always strive to maintain its leading position in the nutraceutical world.
