Indian pharma battles nephrological disorders

nephrological-disorders

Chronic diseases have become one of the most crucial causes behind global morbidity. Before a few decades, chronic diseases were prevailing only in the developed countries. But with lifestyle becoming more and more sedentary, these diseases also have started to develop in low to middle income nations.

If India is to be talked about, deaths due to such diseases are projected to reach 7.63 million in 2020 from 3.78 million in 1990. This is due to lack of awareness. Health programs are also focused on the prevention of ailments such as hypertension, diabetes or other cardiovascular issues. If nephrological disorders are focused, least prominence has been given to spreading its awareness. Also, due to less number of nephrologists in comparison to total patients with nephrological chronic disorders; kidney diseases are progressing to even end-stage renal diseases.

Prevalence of nephrological disorders

Actual prevalence of nephrological disorders cannot be assessed in India but a study (conducted by Harvard Medical School in partnership with 13 medical centers across India) has found that almost 17% of India’s total population has some sort of kidney disease. People with last stage of kidney failure require dialysis or transplantation to sustain. Every year, 2 lakh new patients need dialysis in our country but sadly, only 10-20% gets proper dialysis treatment. The remaining includes the ones that aren’t diagnosed yet or those unable to go for the treatment. As of today, almost 20 lakh people should have a proper dialysis today but at present, only 1 lakh are getting it!

Diabetes is one of the main causes of developing nephrological disorders and India is on number one position in prevalence of diabetes. More than 60 million diabetics are there in the nation of which majority are either not diagnosed or poorly treated. It is an unfortunate truth that 30% of diabetics will develop nephrological diseases and mostly, the chronic diseases.

The big thing is that per million population, there are only 0.4 dialysis centers in the country and only 4000 kidney transplants are performed every year. On the other hand, Japan has 20 dialysis centers per million population and the Unites States performs 16000 kidney transplants (or similar operations) per year with having only one fourth the total population of India.

However some illustrious activities for nephrological disorders brought attention of the policymakers and media to this deprived group of diseases. Also, the Indian Government has taken an initiative to establish some stand-alone hemodialysis units in the country in order to encourage the treatment at affordable rates. Also, the National Organ Transplant Program has been launched to facilitate transplantation on the national scale.

Role of Indian pharma companies

Many Indian pharma companies are supporting the agenda of spreading awareness about nephrological disorders. La Renon is one of the earliest Indian pharma companies to foray into this domain of nephrology. It was difficult to begin this domain in country like India where majority of the population is suffering from some sort of nephrological disorders. But in very short period of time since the inception of La Renon in 2007, we have been successfully delivering medication for following segments:

  • Renal medicine
  • Renal nutrition
  • Hemodialysis
  • Transplant

Know more about our nephrological drugs, now.

Source:

  1. practo.com
  2. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  3. karger.com
  4. indus.org

How a PCD pharmaceutical company can reach more physicians

how-a-pcd-pharmaceutical-company-can-reach-more-physicians

These days, Indian pharmaceutical industry is witnessing tough market competition which is further getting more intense day by day. And as physicians are the most important target audience, PCD pharmaceutical companies keep on trying new marketing strategies in order to reach more physicians. Government laws and regulations have also been evolved over last some years which make the companies come up with more convincing techniques.

However there are many tactics that PCD pharmaceutical companies use, they can be broadly classified into two categories. Read further to know more.

Traditional techniques

Free drug samples: You might be aware of this sort of marketing where pharmaceutical companies provide free drug samples to the physicians. Actually, physicians also love to have them unless their medical network bans free samples. Our pharmaceutical industry finds free samples as the most effective and strongest marketing tool and spends billions annually for the same. Well, it’s also witnessed that free drug samples often encourage doctors to prescribe new and expensive drugs even if they already have an inexpensive brand option on hands.

Complimentary benefits: Doctors often find it fascinating to receive complimentary benefits from pharmaceutical companies. Such benefits include gifts like meals, air tickets, books, speaking fees, etc. There are many state governments who have banned such practices which clearly state that marketing in pharmaceutical industry has become a tough game.

Help of influencers: Many Indian pharma companies consider this one of the best indirect strategies to target the physicians. They develop professional relationships with the key influencers (opinion leaders or thought leaders of the sector) who then, influence the physicians to prescribe their medicines.

Modern techniques

Mobile technology: Doctors are one of the earliest adopters of mobile technology. With almost all the healthcare professionals already married to their favorite electronic gadgets (or smartphones), a smartphone or a tablet app has become the latest marketing technique for many pharmaceutical companies.

Social media: You might think how but yes, it’s true! Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are hottest among PCD pharmaceutical companies to reach more and more number of healthcare professionals. They consider this an opportunity to make the largest network to connect to the physician community.

Today, the scenario is that traditional techniques are fading and have not remained much effective. On other hand, both- patients and doctors are getting more inclined towards technology, making modern techniques more effective.

To stay abreast with pharmaceutical industry, keep watching this space.

Source:

How GST impacts Indian pharmaceutical industry

gst-impacts-indian

GST (The Goods and Service Tax) is certainly the most significant indirect tax reform measure initiated by the Indian Government. It is going to be the game-changer for many industries including the pharmaceutical industry. One uniform tax (GST) is going to eliminate the troubles arising out of the complex structure of multiple taxes. Almost 17 federal and state taxes are going to be eliminated and replaced by the GST.

Indian pharmaceutical industry is complex with and fragmented with over 20,000 registered units. This industry is facing some really crucial issues such as stopping degradation of medicines, managing of perishable items, managing temperature controlled storage facility and more. Following are three key points about how GST affects Indian pharma companies

1. Managing the supply chain

It has been analyzed that an efficient supply chain management (SCM) can result in an overall drop of 25% to 50% in total supply chain costs together with another drop of 25% to 60% in inventory holding which will further result in improved order-fulfillment cycle time and almost 20% increase in after-tax free cash flow. The cost for inventory maintenance is estimated to be around 10% to 18% of net revenue.

2. Making supply chain more efficient

Implementation of GST is also going to benefit supply chain, making it more efficient. Replacing the traditional C&F distribution model, inter-state transactions between two dealers will become tax neutral. Most of the Indian pharma companies will have to reduce the dependency on multiple states and increase the focus on regional hubs in order to re-align their current distribution models. This will lessen the complexities and remarkably reduce the SCM cost.

3. Introducing credit mechanism

Most of the Indian pharma companies work on traders-of-goods model in which a few services become a cost for them that also involves the service tax implications. But GST is to introduce a seamless credit mechanism according to which the paid service tax will be refunded to the companies.

Apart from this, cascading taxes like Octroi prevailing in different states will no longer exist now. Smoother operation and curbed corruption are other positive points to be considered. In a nutshell, GST is undoubtedly a reform which the nation had been wanting for decades and now that it has been introduced, we are soon to witness a stable growth in all the industries including the pharmaceutical industry.