News and Events

GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare forays into breakfast space
9th Nov, 2011

NEW DELHI: GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GSKCH) on Tuesday announced its entry in the breakfast space with the launch of oats under its Horlicks brand.

GSK marketing head Jayant Singh, who moved from Henkel India five months back, said Horlicks oats was being rolled out in markets in the South initially. Packaged ready-to-cook oats, an emerging category estimated at Rs 200 crore, is growing rapidly at about 25%.

PepsiCo's Quaker, Kellogg's and Marico's Saffola are among the leading brands in this category. "Consumers have always had Horlicks drinks during breakfast. So,the brand itself is established among consumers. Being a health brand, we have been looking at opportunities which is relevant for us to enter in the nutrition space," said GSKCH India Marketing Director Jayant Singh.

The company has placed the product in various retail outlets in South India. It plans to take it to the rest of the country after testing the market in the region.

"Out of the Rs 200-crore oats market in India, the southern region contributes about 75% to it. So we have set up internal targets to achieve in South India. All our marketing initiatives will be focussed in the region," Singh said.

Top

India's Healthcare Industry Rises to the top of the Value Chain
12th Oct, 2011

Any recent visitor to West Bengal will tell you about the unquenchable sense of energy on just about every street corner. But I found this to be especially true in the life sciences and healthcare sector with whom I have just spent some time while addressing the CII's Annual Healthcare East Conference in Kolkata.

I had the pleasure of meeting Dr Devi Shetty, the inspirational founder of Bangalore Health City whose heart hospital is performing complex operations at NHS quality but a fraction of the cost -not because of cheap labour, but because of a transformation of clinical and administrative processes. His company, Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospitals, has already expanded into many other states and is planning to develop a low-cost hospital model for West Bengal.

The Indian pharmaceutical sector alone is expected to see growth of 11-14% up to 2013. This is because India has emerged as a hub of drug discovery and development services, growing at more than three and a half times the global rate. There has also been a huge growth in new hospitals and medical infrastructure as well as medical devices. Combined with improving regulatory and IP framework there is no doubt that India is attracting the interest of global healthcare companies.

While UK Health Secretary I was conscious of how a growing British healthcare market has benefited from the Indian talent influx, attracted by our linked education, training and health sector career opportunities. Now the flip side of that coin is the opportunity for innovative British companies in the growing Indian healthcare market. Today the total value of the sector is more than $34 billion, or roughly 6% of GDP making it one of India's largest sectors. By 2012, India's healthcare sector is projected to grow to nearly $40 billion.

With India growing at almost eight per cent whist Europe is growing at less than one per cent it is no wonder that UK businesses are looking east. Those businesses ahead of the curve are already seeing tangible results of working with partners in India whose commitment and enthusiasm is infectious. For example, MSD India, the fully owned subsidiary of US-based Merck & Co, is planning to set up a R&D centre in India in a joint venture with UK-based Wellcome Laboratories.

The centre - MSD Wellcome Trust Hilleman Laboratories - will be a 50:50 joint venture with a total investment of $130 million (approximately £78 million) aimed at pioneering affordable vaccines for developing countries. And it should not be forgotten that this truly collaborative UK-India partnership is a two-way street. For example, Indian pharma company, Dr Reddy's Laboratories has opened its newly expanded Chirotech Technology Centre, a purpose-built facility to house its laboratories and offices, at the Cambridge Science Park.

Businesses from both sides should do their research before investing in each other's markets but there has also never been a better time to be brave about seizing the opportunity. Ernst & Young believe there will be three primary catalysts to growth in the Indian healthcare industry: a boom in the demand for healthcare infrastructure (including an additional 1.75 million beds required by 2025 at a cost of $86 billion), the growing penetration of health insurance (currently growing at around 50%) and increasing investments by private equity and venture capital firms who have pumped around $2 billion into the industry in five years. The boom in medical tourism is complementing the growth in the domestic health industry, with the appeal of world-class healthcare offered at a fraction of the cost in western countries. This area has also seen annual growth of 25-30% and is poised to reach $2.2 billion by 2012.

The Indian government has of course been playing its part to build its country's healthcare sector with investments in better medical infrastructure and rural health facilities. This includes the National Rural Health Mission (NHRM) allocating over US$ 10 billion for the upgrading and capacity enhancement of healthcare facilities. The Indian government is also keen to boost R&D and actively promote start-ups. This is likely to provide significant opportunities for UK universities to undertake collaborative research programmes with Indian organisations and to set up links with education institutes to provide training courses in this area.

But of course, the private sector accounts for more than 80% of total healthcare spending in India and during my visit I found a real openness to foreign companies investing. UK firms already investing include Huntleigh Technology which has set up a subsidiary company in Mumbai and Randox Laboratories which has a successful presence in India's diagnostics/pathology market. Smith & Nephew as well as Smiths Medical International have subsidiaries in India, as do Omega Diagnostics and Algeos, while BUPA has a joint venture with Max India. Companies like these are likely to be among those networking and exploring further opportunities at the MEDTEC India 2011 conference in Mumbai from 19-20 October, Hospital Infrastructure India 2011 in Mumbai from 14-16 December and Medifest 2011 in New Delhi from 15-17 December.

Long regarded as simply a base for generic manufacturing, India is now seen as moving up the value chain and offering a broader market for products. No one represents this more than Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, who formed her company in a garage after her preferred career as a master brewer hit a glass ceiling due to her gender. Her company Biocon is now Asia's largest biotechnology company. None of this is a threat to British companies but a huge opportunity as it is evidence of a growing Indian middle class demanding the best in world-class healthcare. British businesses should start their footprint in India - a country that will soon be setting the global pace for innovation in the life sciences and healthcare sector.

Top

Indian pharma industry to be in global top 5 by 2020: Ikon Marketing Consultant
13th Sep, 2011

RAJKOT: According to a study, India will emerge as a leading global player in pharmaceutical industry by 2020, securing a place among the top five major global markets.

City-based Ikon Marketing Consultant (IMC), one of the leading marketing consulting firms in the country, has come out with a study on the pharma sector in India.

Describing the ongoing decade as a healthy one for pharma industry, Azaz Motiwala, IMC founder and principal consultant said the major driving factors in this decade are huge domestic demand and increased spending on drugs.

"The global pharma market is expected to grow at 7 per cent to 8 per cent over the next five years, reaching an anticipated US $1.7 trillion in 2020," Motiwala said, adding that India is going to rank among top ten global players by 2015 itself.

According to him, Indian consumer currently spends nearly one per cent of his total income on drugs and pharmaceuticals, which will not alter significantly in the current decade.

"However, with the rise in the per capita income, the spending is going to be triple (approximately US $33) by 2020," Motiwala said.

"Government's long term vision of making quality health care affordable, at least 50 per cent of country's population should be covered by health insurance by 2020, against the current coverage of only 15 per cent and the research indicates that the coverage should increase to 80 per cent within next ten years," he added.

By 2020, nearly 650 million people will have health insurance cover, while private insurance coverage will grow by nearly 15 per cent annually till 2020, he said.

"By 2020, the Indian health care industry is estimated to be worth US$275.6 billion and currently 8 % of India's GDP is spent on health care, but the country needs to spend at least US$80 billion more in the next five years to meet the targets," the research stated.

According to the study, in the current decade, the spread of diabetes will drive the growth of new therapies in India's pharmaceutical market and by 2020, the disease will assume greater proportions by rising six times. Diabetes presently affects around 50 million Indians, killing about 4 million annually and as per official statistics.

"Treatment for chronic diseases like asthma, cancer, diabetes, heart ailments, osteoporosis and kidney ailments will likely to constitute more than half of India's pharma market by the end of the decade," Motiwala said.

Five new areas, including patented products, consumer healthcare, biologics, vaccines and public health, will capture 45 per cent of the market by the end of the decade to grow to a US$14-18 billion industry by 2020.

Emerging sectors, such as bio pharmaceuticals, bio generics, bio similar and pharma packaging, are going to contribute significantly, the study says.

According to the study, metros and tier-1 markets, which have been growing at 14-15 per cent in the last five years, will drive growth in the industry. They account for 60 per cent of the Indian pharmaceutical market today and look set to continue growing to a market size at US#33 billion by the end of the decade, Motiwala said.

Rural markets, on the other hand, will constitute 25 per cent by 2020 up from 20 per cent currently.

Top

ICRI to teach healthcare management, iGovernment
11th July, 2008

New Delhi: The Institute of Clinical Research India (ICRI) has tied up with Academy of Hospital Administration (AHA) to start teaching healthcare management in the country.

The initiative is aimed at providing qualified manpower to the booming medical tourism sector in India, reports IANS.

"We wish to bring in a paradigm shift in the healthcare and wellness segment using the science of management and training to ensure continuity, maximise capacity and improve quality of care," ICRI Chairman S R Dugal said.

"India has a huge potential in terms of capability and quality and this is what we need to harness today in the healthcare and wellness segment," he added.

According to a McKinsey and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) study, medical tourism in India has the potential to become a $1 billion business by 2012.

The government has predicted that India's $17-billion-a-year healthcare industry could grow 13 per cent in each of the next six years, boosted by medical tourism.

ICRI is one of India's leading clinical research institutes and currently operates out of Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

Top

Educating To Lure Foreigners For Cures
10th July, 2008,

An Indian health education group has announced courses in hospital management and medical tourism-- intended to tap into a burgeoning healthcare industry at home and care-seekers from abroad.

From a ''few small charitable hospitals (to) world class corporate modern hospitals,'' India's healthcare industry ''has come a long way,'' Shiv Raman Dugal, chairman of the Institute of Clinical Research (India) told journalists this week.

The $17-billion-a-year-- and growing-- industry is estimated to employ four million people serving the needs of a sixth of world population suffering from a fifth of its ailments.

For the past four years, the Institute has been running a postgraduate clinical research course turning out professionals trained to conduct trials of new drugs, medical devices and procedures.

Dugal said the new courses would inject scientific management concepts and practices into hospital operations "hitherto handled by medical superintendents" as well as in medical tourism, which drew 150,000 travellers to India in 2004.

These courses will be administered by the Institute's newly created Health Division headed by Major General (retired) Munindra Srivastava.

Dr Srivastasva said monthly pay packages in healthcare industry could be as high as Rs 50,000 at entry level and Rs 1,50,000 to 2,50,000 for experienced professionals.

Institute officials say manpower deficiency in a booming healthcare industry underscores the need for scientific management with marketing strategies.

The bulk of India's healthcare spending is in private sector. It ranks 171st among 175 countries in Public Health Sector spending and 17th in Private Sector spending.

The spending has more than doubled in just over a decade from Rs 86,000 crore in 1991 to a projected Rs 200,000 crore in 2012-- Rs 156,000 crore of it in private sector.

Explaining medical tourism, Dr Srivastava said the idea was to provide state-of-the-art private medical care in collaboration with tourism industry to foreign patients at highly competitive prices compared to hospitals in the West.

Medical procedures in India cost a tenth or less of what they cost in the West. For instance, a metal-free dental bridge which costs $5,500 in the US, costs only $500 in India.

He said India was now a leading promoter of medical tourism moving into an era of 'medical outsourcing' with sub-contractors providing services to over-burdened and high priced Western facilities.

Experts say the concept dates back thousands of years when Greek pilgrims all over the Mediterranean travelled to a small territory in the Saronic Gulf called Epidauria-- home of the healer god Asklepios. Spa towns and sanitariums were also early form of medical tourism, they say.

Institute officials see medical and health tourism as ''the next big success story of India,'' packaging medical treatment with recuperative leisure at resorts.

Besides high prices and insurance complications, Western destinations such as Britain and Canada pose long waiting periods.

In Canada, for instance, as many as 782,936 patients waited for procedures in 2005, they said.

A study commissioned by the Confederation of Indian Industry showed that 1.3 million medical tourists visit Asia annually and some 710,000 Americans seek cheaper care abroad.

The Institute says India ''has some of the best corporate hospitals and treatment centres in the world''-- with hospital infrastructure and technology on a par with the United States and Britain.

At least for now, there is no waiting period and a 98.7 per cent procedure success rate as compared to 97.5 per cent in the U S.

Asked how the Institute will equip graduates to deal with such trends as illegal kidney transplants or unauthorised drug-testing, Brigadier (retired) Dr K S Bhatnagar, a course consultant, said the curriculum includes studies on Law and Health.

The goal, according to an Institute brochure, is to meet ''the growing demand of skilled clinical research professionals in the future... with a primary focus on promoting ethical research.'' The issue of ethics arises owing to reports from time to time of drug-makers testing new concoctions without adequate approvals or accountability.

Asked whether an upsurge in clinical testing activity might raise the risk of patient or subject abuse, Institute spokesmen cited steps taken by the Indian Council of Medical Research to promote ethics.

Last year, the Council launched a Registry for Clinical Trials aimed at transparency in such trials and consequent requirements that any adverse effects be treated and subjects compensated-- not left in the lurch.

But the Council Registry is a voluntary affair, not a requirement, implying that trials might still be conducted without its knowledge, albeit journals may not publish such findings.

Experts say that is hardly a consolation to any victims should unregistered experiments fail or induce harm.

They say that while schools can instill correct values, a far more effective role has to be played by regulation through meaningful laws and enforcement.

According to published sources, drug corporations which have to reckon with strict regulatory norms or legal actions in, for instance, the United States, eye India, with its millions of untreated patients, as an advantageous ''resource.'' For instance, California-based iGATE Corporation, listed among top clinical research global outsourcers, says India ''represents a largely untapped resource for clinical trials.'' Among pluspoints, it cites are huge patient base, diversity of diseases, heterogeneous population mix, drug naïve population, high enrollment rates, state-of-the-art hospital facilities, reliable, well-trained, experienced investigators, competitive costs and ''increasingly accommodating'' regulatory environment.

A morbidity list for India put out by iGATE includes 40 million asthmatic patients, 34 million diabetic patients, 8-10 million people HIV positive, eight million epileptic patients, three million cancer patients, two million cardiac related deaths, 1.5 million Alzheimer's victims, 15 per cent of population is hypertensive and one per cent suffer from schizophrenia.

Top

Institute of Clinical Research to teach healthcare management Tribune News Service
New Delhi, 10th July 2008

Riding the healthcare boom in the country, the Institute of Clinical Research India (ICRI) yesterday announced the launch of its healthcare division - ICRI HEALTH.

The division will focus on imparting structured and relevant education and bringing in the science of management into healthcare services - both for medical tourism and hospital operations management.

ICRI HEALTH also announced the appointment of Major General (Dr) M. Srivastava, VSM (Retd.), former professor of Hospital Administration, University of Pune and a pioneer of healthcare management services associated with various prestigious institutes like the Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, AIIMS and IGNOU.

ICRI HEALTH has entered into an MOU with Academy of Hospital Administration (AHA) for jointly conducting hospital operations management and healthcare industry related courses.

On this occasion S R Dugal, chairman, board of directors, ICRI said, "The healthcare industry in India has come a long way. We wish to bring in a paradigm shift in the healthcare and wellness segment using the science of management and training to ensure continuity, maximize capacity and improve quality of care. India has a huge potential in terms of capability and quality and this is what we need to harness today in the healthcare and wellness segment. As an institute, we are constantly benchmarking ourselves to international best practices in our domain of education and we aim to be the future torch bearer for similar institutes in India."

According to a study by McKinsey and the Confederation of Indian Industry, medical tourism in India could become a $1 billion business by 2012, claimed Duggal.

"More and more tourists are choosing India as their medical treatment destination because it has a rich cultural heritage and innumerable tourist destinations. The other advantages are that metros have good infrastructure, majority of the population speak English and that Indian surgeons have world class skills and surgical exposure", he added.

Top