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Indian lifesciences industry perceives start-ups & digital ecosystem to spur innovation
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Nandita Vijay, Bengaluru
December 31 , 2016
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Indian lifesciences industry considers it would be the start-up and
digital ecosystem in the country which is expected to give a fillip to
the much-needed innovation.
The huge potential of the Indian
pharmaceuticals market cannot be ignored by the foreign companies in
view of the fact that it will be one of the top 10 sales markets by
2020, said Dr Sujay Shetty, Leader, PwC India.
In 2017-2020,
around $51billion worth of drugs are expected to go off patent in the
US. This is where India with its quality science teams are set to
capitalize with its capability to manufacture a substantial share of
these drugs with research on novel products, said the industry
observers.
Experts at IISc and NCBS point out that the government
efforts like Make in India and Start-up India has taken many steps to
reduce costs and bring down healthcare expenses. Speedy introduction of
generic drugs into the market has remained in focus and is expected to
benefit the Indian pharmaceutical companies. In addition, the thrust on
rural health programmes, lifesaving drugs and preventive vaccines also
augur well for the pharmaceutical companies, stated industry experts.
According
to Rajeev Banduni, co-founder & CEO, GrowthEnabler India, needs an
ecosystem for start-ups to scale-up. Only technology can facilitate
knowledge sharing leading to cross pollination of concepts. An emerging
opportunity in lifesciences and particularly med-tech is artificial
intelligence. There are a couple disruptive technologies but the need of
the hour is that early stage companies have to interact and
collaborate.
US attracts around one-third of total funding as
Google, IBM and Apple are slating huge investments in healthcare,
followed by Japan, Germany and China. “India’s contribution is miniscule
despite a promising start-up scenario. Going forward, artificial
intelligence is expected to stimulate growth. The Start-Up India; Make
in India initiatives and enabling process of ease of doing business will
favour emergence of novel concepts,” noted Banduni.
According to
Ram Meenakshisundaram, senior vice president; global delivery head,
Cognizant Life Sciences, this industry has come a long way in digitizing
at periphery and now is looking to adopt this in core areas of
operations. These include areas spanning from genome sequencing to
development of bionic limbs.
“Job creation is a big challenge for
India. This is where start-ups are vital for employment generation to
sustain productivity. The existing well-known industries need to
collaborate with start-ups and colleges to create the specific pool of
talent,” said Banduni.
Scalability for any business model in
Indian healthcare involves the three pillars: people, process and
technology. India does not lack in qualified and quality talent, said
Kunal Sen, senior vice president, TeamLease Services Limited.
Healthcare
and pharmaceuticals segment has been one of the leading industry
segments in terms of attracting PE/VC investments so far, said Kaustav
Ganguli, Healthcare Lead and senior director with Alvarez & Marsal.
Therefore the industry sees that start-ups and digital ecosystem to spur
innovation.
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