The pharmaceutical sector faces several difficulties in the fast-paced world of today, from creating new medications to successfully promoting and selling them. Jaswinder Chadha, the CEO of New Jersey-based Axtria, is on a quest to use cutting-edge technology to overhaul the pharmaceutical industry. We shall explore Axtria’s history, its creative solutions, and Jaswinder Chadha’s future outlook in this post.
Unplanned Travel
The course of Jaswinder Chadha’s career was incredibly unpredictable. He first wanted to enlist in the military like his father. One term into his military course, he bravely decided to veer off course. Jaswinder made the decision to attend IIT Delhi because his mother, Tarvinder Chadha, was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics from the institute in 1968. He had no idea that this choice would eventually propel him to prominence in the pharmaceutical sector.
The Sexless Life Sciences Industry
In the field of software engineering, the life sciences sector is sometimes viewed as “unsexy.” The best talent is rarely drawn to it, particularly in India. Jaswinder decided to act after realizing this issue. Axtria collaborated with trainers and educators to provide specialized curricula. The Axtria Institute (AI), founded in 2013, is devoted to the training and development of its staff. More than 50,000 certificates in technical subjects like SQL, Python, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and Power BI have been granted by AI, which now has over 400 teachers.
The influence of the institute is best summed up by Jaswinder Chadha, who says, “When you see the in-class training we do, it’s like going to a university to get a degree.”
The Change in Technology
Axtria sought to stand out as a sales consulting firm for pharmaceutical corporations by embracing software and technology. When the company unveiled Axtria Sales IQ as its main product in 2013, it marked a significant change toward a software-as-a-service (SaaS) business model.
Five flagship items are now available from Axtria:
Pharmaceutical businesses can track and determine incentives for their sales personnel using the tool Sales IQ.
Customer IQ: A tool for improving customer interaction that uses AI-ML analytics to suggest improvements.
Marketing IQ: This program tracks advertising campaigns and calculates ROI.
Pharmaceutical firms can gather, store, and analyze data from their processes using DataMAX, a cloud-based platform, to produce insights that can be put to use.
Furthermore, people actively engaged in product creation and development make up over 12% of the Axtria workforce. These individuals include engineers, data scientists, product managers, and domain specialists. The business has expanded significantly, with software items now accounting for 50% of its revenues.
The Way Forward
Axtria intends to take advantage of its data models and produce a cloud-based platform for medication development in order to further differentiate itself in the market. In the future of vertical integration in drug research, according to Jaswinder, pharmaceutical firms will employ data analysts who use tools to organize and evaluate datasets for novel medications.
According to Jaswinder Chadha, “We’re in the business of selling shovels and picks to pharmaceutical companies, thinking about actually having digital platforms.”
Axtria is actively growing its personnel with the goal of hiring 1000 individuals for its new location in Pune. Many of these new employees will concentrate on product-based tasks, such as developing novel use cases and enhancing current services. Another office for the business is now being established in Hyderabad.
Axtria’s first institutional fundraising round occurred in 2021 when it received $150 million from the Bain Capital Opportunities Fund. It’s remarkable that none of its investors have left the business.
A Successful Journey
Jaswinder Chadha escapes his work life by taking his family on two vacations each year. He’s thinking about taking an early retirement, but he’s still very dedicated to his work and enjoys the ride. He says it simply: “That’s not who I am. Since I enjoy what I do and have had success, the path has been more satisfying.
