Hyderabad: Lack of a robust insurance system and primary and preventive healthcare are the major reasons for people not getting adequate treatment despite Indian pharmaceutical companies being the largest providers of medicines to the West.
Since the Indian pharmaceutical sector has developed so well, healthcare should be affordable and accessible for Indians, but this is not so.
G.V. Prasad, chairman of CII’s National Committee on pharmaceuticals explained that the country needs to invest in primary and preventive healthcare. “What is emerging now is that due to lack of primary and preventive healthcare systems people are suffering more,” he said.
The primary healthcare system helps to bring down the cost of diseases. For the past decade people have been going to super speciality hospitals for something like fever because there are no family physicians. This increases the cost of treatment.
Preventive measures in terms of seasonal diseases and non-communicable diseases such as heart problems, diabetes, and obesity, for example, can be tackled if there are proper programmes in place. The burden of diseases continues to be high, with more and more people in their 30s getting these diseases.
Health insurance in India covers only 34 per cent of the country’s population, which is very low. This is despite health insurance coverage being provided by the central and state governments under various schemes. The changing disease profile in terms of non-communicable disease like heart problems, hypertension, diabetes and its complications, obesity and many others are adding to the problems of health but there is no proper insurance scheme in place to cover these diseases.
Interestingly, Indian pharma firms supply 40 per cent generic medicines to the US and 25 per cent of all medicines to the UK. Indian firms supply 50 per cent of the global vaccine market. 80 per cent of anti-retroviral drugs used globally to combat AIDS are supplied by Indian companies.
It is ironical that while these sectors have developed, the outreach to Indian patients is poor; it has to be improved so that Indians can avail of the benefits. A senior pharma firm official on the condition of anonymity explained, “The schemes of the government must be robust to ensure that all those in the periphery are covered. Additionally, regulations must be strict and proper monitoring of medicinal drugs in these zones must be carried out by the drug controller.”
Hyderabad to soon become healthcare hub
The city of Hyderabad, often considered to be a hub for pharma firms, will soon become the healthcare capital as pharma firms, which are being developed in the clusters of the pharma city, will work on active pharmaceutical ingredients, formulations and academia.
E.V. Narasimha Reddy, vice-chairman and MD of TSIIC says, “We have the right ecosystem and infrastructure to make the city capital of healthcare. A good network of hospitals is in the state and there is also research and development being carried out by the pharmaceutical companies and that will go a long way.”
The government is also planning to set up a medical device park in the state.
