In India, oncology treatment generally covers lakhs, particularly with certain lung, prostate and breast cancer drugs evaluated on a lakh per dose in some cases. Regulatory systems, diagnosis, treatment infrastructure and funding mechanisms must be tailored to the needs of patients.
Cancer drugs, which are the subject of research and development, focus on the lion's share of global medicines, but only a handful brings it to developing countries such as 'India. Only seven oncology drugs have been introduced in India over five years (2010-2014), while nearly 50 major therapies have been launched worldwide.
"Companies are realizing that there are medicines that are not widely available in India for a variety of reasons and that access to medicines that are being discovered and launched in other parts of the world is necessary.
For instance, we have only 2,000 oncologists in India, while the number of cancer patients is over 10 million. In India too, deaths due to cancer are projected to go up by 20% to over 8.8 lakh in the next four years, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research.
India needs strong public and private funding to support the cancer care system, prevention and diagnosis being both important aspects that need to be promoted, "says Amit Mookim, MD, South Asia QuintilesIMS.
Sujay Shetty, Pharmaceutical Leader, PwC India and Asia-Pacific: "Access is a huge challenge as most oncology drugs are priced exorbitantly and a majority of health care goes beyond their share in India
However, K V Subramaniam, President and CEO of Reliance Life Sciences, which primarily offers biosimilars to oncology, is destroying the hierarchical pricing structure. "In reality, what is offered by some companies is free supply for the last cycles of chemotherapy. The companies concerned have earned their money in the other cycles of chemotherapy for which the patient has bought the drug.”
Most health insurance products do not cover critical illnesses such as cancer, and some comprehensive medical insurance policies are subject to sub-limits or may not cover the full cost of treatment.
Therefore, it takes a product dedicated to caring for cancer to treat cancer treatment costs from end to end. In India, we only have a few cancer care insurance products available, Mookim said.
