The point-of-care bet. In conversation with Molbio’s founders

Goa-based Molbio Diagnostics recently announced an $85mn fund raise from Singapore’s Temasek at an enterprise value of $1.5 bn reportedly making it India’s first ‘unicorn’ in the medical  devices sector. Its flagship Truenat is a relatively low-cost, portable and miniaturised polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology platform or micro PCR. The platform takes molecular biology testing for life-threatening …

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The promise and perils of exhaled breath for early diagnosis and precision medicine

My lead story for the latest issue of science and technology magazine Shaastra is on the potential of exhaled breath in the early detection of killer diseases and to aid precision medicine. You can access it here. I interviewed researchers from India, China, Israel and the US and was amazed at how far the science …

Start-up interest gives boost to development of #point-of-care solutions #medtech

The pandemic has underscored the need for rapid, accurate and affordable screening and diagnostic tools that are as close to the patient as possible. In the latest issue of Shaastra, I have profiled a clutch of companies that are using a wide range of technologies to come up with solutions. You can read the story …

Is self-regulation in #medtech doomed to fail?

The offer by needle and syringe manufacturers to voluntarily cap trade margins at 75 per cent after meeting with the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority apparently validates the view that without the actionable threat of price control, the healthcare sector cannot be trusted to self-regulate. “The NPPA advised manufacturers to consider regulating price themselves; otherwise, the …

“Come into my parlour..” India’s strange #medtech pricing decisions

Correct me if I am wrong but I do believe that the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare just acknowledged that when prices of a product are fixed, manufacturers are discouraged from entering the market. And that competition brings down prices. Yes, you read that right, competition, and not price control. In a revealing …

Guest column : The UN High-Level Panel on #accesstomedicines is a wolf in sheep’s clothing

In 2015, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon convened a High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines. Its charge was to recommend solutions to the fallaciously described “policy incoherence between the justifiable rights of inventors, international human rights law, trade rules and public health in the context of health technologies.” Unfortunately, their starting point was misguided, …

Why do chemists hate e-pharmacies so much?

Last June, I wrote about the burgeoning online pharmacy business on this blog. Taking off on a column that I had authored for the Indian Express, I pointed out that while India's regulation of brick-and-mortar pharmacies (or chemist shops) has been slack, online pharmacies would be held to higher standards. That in the absence of …

#Clinicaltrials : Are India’s Ethics Committees weak links in the chain?

Clinical trials, that hot-button subject hogging headlines up until a year ago, appears to have quietly slipped into the realm of business-as-usual. However, there are still some knotty issues to be resolved. Chief among them is the oversight of Ethics Committees (ECs) as was evident at a recent event I attended. ECs - which are …

Guest column : How to leverage a global policy revival in traditional medicine

On Friday, May 13, India committed close to a million dollars to help create a benchmark document for training and practice of Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathic medicine. It is indeed a significant commitment and the reinforcement of ongoing efforts by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to promote traditional health systems strengthening around the …

Hospital infection big problem in India: NABH #indiahealth #nosocomialinfections

Last week, the Indian Express published my column on the urgent need for hospitals - big and small - to follow infection control norms. Click here to read. While researching the column, I spoke to officials at the National Board for Accreditation of Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH) to understand how the issue might be …