COMPANY OVERVIEW
Premas Life Sciences (PLS) is a young, dynamic and focused organization introducing game-changing niche technologies in the field of Genomics, Cell Biology and Biopharma to boost innovative research and diagnostics in India. They are also the knowledge partners to several reputed research institutes and hospitals, enabling them to set up core genomics facilities with complete support at all fronts.
The biggest motivation behind the inception of PLS was to set up an organization that could contribute significantly to the life science research landscape in India, and have the convergence of a committed and highly skilled workforce to catalyze this process.
In their entrepreneurial journey, the biggest challenge was to establish the value proposition of a very niche technology (i.e. Next Generation Sequencing) at a time when it was quite new to the Indian market. To change the course of traditional research and widen the acceptability for NGS was challenging. Of course, maintaining a continuous cash flow and hiring the right talent was quite a task as well.
“Obstacles do teach you a lot. And the journey so far has taught me that to have customers believing in you, you have to be at the top of your game. People buy from experts.
Dr. Debjani Saha,
Group Product Manager
COVID-19 has been one such challenge in the course of Premas Life Sciences. The pandemic has been disruptive globally. The struggle for survival is a long persistent one. But every crisis presents an opportunity – and so it helped PLS repurpose their core-competency areas to venture into closely affiliated new opportunities and quickly adapt to the dynamic market needs. It’s really important to survive, in the very least, till the economy revives.
In times like these, it is difficult to be positive and motivated each day. The mental exhaustion can easily bog people down. So, it’s important to keep the flock together. Dr. Saha says, “I try to be in touch with my team every alternate day to assure their well-being, assuring that nobody’s feeling left out. We have built a mutually appreciative work culture and I think that’s how we all keep each other’s spirits lifted up.”
What worked for the PLS team was to set realistic smart goals that could be met irrespective of the timing that an individual chooses to work at. According to Dr. Saha, “There shouldn’t be a need to guard or keep check points. Assign short-term KRAs for a designated time period, set clear objectives and look forward to measuring the deliverables instead of micromanaging the process.”
MOTTO AND WORK CULTURE
Staying abreast of the market is half your job done. While one can retain their core competency areas, it’s important to diversify beyond these while business is good, and one has the luxury of means and mind space to explore. It’s important to invest in new ideas with potential to lay a foundation for future business opportunities.
Dr. Saha religiously believes that it’s important to build a strong, committed team that you genuinely care for. “A happy tribe translates into happy clients. And it is also important to use your position of privilege to give back to society in whatever capacity you can.”
R&D is essential as it lays the foundation for new avenues to invest and explore, but one can choose to either do it themselves or be associated with it through partnerships. For instance in their case over the years, PLS has fostered exciting partnerships with academic institutions engaging in research to bring new solutions to the market.
Clearly today, the lines between one’s personal and professional life have blurred. During these times, Dr. Saha believes that it is important to preserve your sanity and accept that your productivity would probably not be 100% everyday. What is important is to have a sustained effort towards your short-term and long term goals. What helped the team at PLS was to set targets for what needs to be done on a daily basis, and also choose what tasks needed personal attention and what could be delegated.
“My sincere advice for anyone who looks up to me would be to realize one’s potential, essentially assess every night if you’ve made an incremental difference to the work that you do and if you learned something new.”
VISION FOR THE FUTURE
Premas Life Sciences is looking at diversifying further into the clinical diagnostics and Biopharma space, and also delving into the manufacturing space in future.
Among multiple accolades, they take pride in being Elite partners to global leaders, Illumina Inc., also being awarded as Asia’s Best Brands in the life sciences space. But beyond material achievements, catalysing the Genomics space in India from its nascent stage has really been a feather in their cap.
“In our continued quest for game-changing technologies, we take pride in bringing key brands like 10x Genomics to India, revolutionising research in newer application areas like Single Cell Genomics and Spatial Transcriptomics. With 10x Genomics’ technology, the research community will be empowered for breakthrough outcomes across the life sciences, including oncology, immunology and neuroscience.”
They have always strived to contribute their bit for society. PLS is actively involved in multiple philanthropic activities with a Delhi based NGO- “Sahyog – Care for You”. They strongly advocate the basic right to education for young kids and support the free access to quality education for lesser privileged children.
Apart from this, they also stepped up to donate the CSR funds for Disaster Management. Quite recently, PLS also began free training programs for graduate students under the theme #plsconnect in which their vision is to nurture young minds on the nuances of NGS technology as well as provide invaluable career guidance.
SOME WORDS OF WISDOM FROM DR. DEBJANI SAHA
“It is easy to fall apart in these times of despair, people have lost lives and livelihoods and so much more. So it’s really important to give it all to survive and stay positive, and assess how best we can repurpose our skills and core business to adapt to the changed market dynamics. Once this is all over, we can look back and feel happy that we survived one of the biggest crises of our lifetime. It’s probably the biggest cliché, but it helps to remind oneself each day that ‘this too shall pass.”
