Prompt delivery of starting materials is crucial to fast start of a project and the key to our drug discovery and delivery speed.

Our dedicated team of personnel includes purchasing officers, store/stock managers as well as in-house customs liaising officer. Over the course of past several years, we have identified a list of suppliers, both locally and internationally, with account managers in larger suppliers dedicated to our orders. We evaluate delivery metrics and work together with our suppliers to continuously improve starting material delivery.

The supply process is mapped out, with expected delivery times from various suppliers. This metric is monitored monthly and we actively work with our suppliers to improve delivery lead times. o2h discovery also maintains an inventory of most commonly used chemicals and reagents in-house to further aid delivery speeds of drug discovery projects.

With over a decade of experience working in this industry, o2h discovery has understood the impact of supply chain performance on overall synthesis performance and has game changing advantages vs. other competitors in India.

Structural advantages

  • o2h discovery being an Export Oriented Unit (EOU) we are able to reduce (compared to an SEZ) the turn-around time for import chemicals due to elimination of two entire layers of customs processing/clearance.
    • Layer 1 – pre-clearance of import shipments
      • In an SEZ we have to file the Bill of Entry (BOE) only after transhipment from Mumbai to Ahmedabad while at EOU we can start the process of custom clearance of import shipments in advance of it landing in Mumbai airport via our custom officer where we can save 2-3 days
    • Layer 2 – no clearance at the gate
      • In the SEZ a custom clearance officer sits at the gate of the campus and is required to approve each shipment before it reaches the scientists. This custom clearance step may lead to delays of up to 1-2 day(s) as that officer receives shipment from a # of companies simultaneously which can result in a lengthy queue. This issue is compounded if the officer is unavailable (e.g., due to his illness, has to go on other government business, his own discretion). No such process exists for EOU.

    We save 7 days on a shipment from Combiblocks, 5 days on a shipment from ARK Pharma and 7 days on a shipment from Apollo Scientific.

 

Process/Internal advantages

  • Reduced hierarchy leading to faster approval (same day, in fact in matter of minutes) and same day processing of purchase orders for chemicals.
    • A dedicated 2nd shifter working in Purchasing Team specifically for import chemical ordering – resulting in chemical ordering and tracking over an extended portion of day/night matching the time-zone of import suppliers.
  • The key purchase processes have been mapped to understand and optimize the chemicals procurement process.
  • Efficient utilization of extensive vendor base locally (in Gujarat) and domestically (in India)
    • 70% of our chemicals are procured locally – turn-around time 1-2 days from placing the PO.
    • Strategic relationship with major domestic vendors (Sigma, Alfa Aesar and TCI India – each has a bonded ware-house i.e., option to procure chemicals in duty-paid/duty-free mode).
      • 17% of our chemicals are procured domestically – turn-around time 2-3 days (duty-paid orders) or 7 days (duty-free orders).
    • Tactical relationship with Blue-Dart (courier agency) for minimizing transit time of shipments.
  • Wider network of suppliers for import chemicals – across USA (e.g., Combiblocks), UK (e.g., Apollo Scientific), China (e.g., ARK Pharma), Germany (e.g. Enamine).
    • At o2h discovery we have a non-hierarchical set-up where we process the order same day to get faster delivery.
    • 13% of our chemicals are procured internationally. Turn-around time 8-9 days (duty-paid orders) or 10 days (duty-free orders).
    • Tactical relationship with courier agencies (e.g., DHL, FedEx) for minimizing transit time of shipments as well as facilitating faster clearance process.
    • Dedicated custom house agent (CHA) in Mumbai as well as in Ahmedabad for assisting with custom clearance of shipments (e.g., responding to any custom officer queries).
  • Supply chain team that is incentivized based on overall project performance inclusive of supply chain measures.

Press Release – Curza and o2h discovery announce a multi-FTE chemistry collaboration against gram negative