The COVID pandemic has demonstrated that vulnerabilities in the healthcare system can have serious impacts on public health, economic progress, government trust and social cohesion. As we felt the lethality of the pandemic fade, a second wave ravaged the country last year. Amidst all this, the healthcare industry had to rise to the occasion with constant innovation, meeting the needs of the times and coming up with new ways of providing patient care. Dependence on health services has increased manifold and consumers have been quick to adopt digital services, showing a significant behavioral change. Pharma Research and Development (R&D) started life in an unprecedented manner by developing new drugs, vaccines and tests for COVID.
According to our health ministry, the total dose of COVID vaccine delivered in India has crossed 1.3 billion. However, a new COVID variant is upon us now, and almost half of India’s population is yet to be fully vaccinated. With the rapid spread of the new strain Omicron and a rise in COVID cases due to the threat of a third wave, there is a renewed interest in booster shots for those already vaccinated. Booster doses are especially needed to protect health care and frontline workers who were vaccinated earlier than the rest. Private hospitals are flooded with requests for booster doses, and there is a growing demand in India as a result of reports of it being administered abroad. The World Health Organization’s Vaccines Advisory Board recommends that people with immunodeficiency or who have been vaccinated with an inactivated vaccine receive a booster. Industry leaders are asking the government to give booster shots in the wake of the third wave, as providing maximum vaccine coverage is one of the best ways of future-proofing.
The COVID pandemic has had a major impact on the Indian healthcare sector, making it in urgent need of solid financial support. To address this, the government announced a 137% increase in health expenditure in the budget for 2021-22. Going forward, health and safety should be a top priority. The prescription for an innovative and healthy India would involve multi-stakeholder collaboration between the government, the private sector, universities, technology and healthcare startups, experts and other stakeholders, to create a concrete action plan and drive patient-centred growth. steps can be taken. and technology-enabled healthcare systems. The roles of healthcare workers will need to evolve through dramatic technological changes that empower health workers with the skills needed to make better decisions and make decisions.
The transformation of manufacturing, backed by advanced technology, supply chain management and efficient operations, will help in building a healthy supply and logistics ecosystem in India.
It is important to create a transparent, connected and agile network for end-to-end tracking of drug delivery. The system should be able to monitor and warn of potential bottlenecks and detect overstocking of drugs nearing the end of their shelf life. We should determine the desired inventory level for each drug at each location as an input for schedules and forecasts, and simulate scenarios to improve forecast accuracy.
The price of a drug is an important factor to consider for all countries, especially in the context of drugs that usually need to be affordable. We also need to encourage innovators to price drugs so as to recover the significant discovery costs and risk involved in investing money to meet unmet needs and address new diseases.
The impact of COVID and its mutations highlight the need for a global legally binding solution to ensure that pathogens are available to scientists to develop vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tools. We must learn from our responses to this disaster to remove barriers to future generations facing public health crises. Now, more than ever, it is time for surveillance, epidemiology and research to join together to share pathogens in a timely and predictable manner.
India has the potential to become a global hub for R&D, clinical research, manufacturing and knowledge-based services. Investing in innovation will boost India’s position as a world leader in pharmaceuticals and give us an opportunity to become self-reliant in the pharmaceutical industry. Despite some challenges, digital technology will prove to be a game-changer in healthcare. In addition, digitization and automation could create new opportunities to integrate and safeguard the health and overall well-being of patients.
Swati Piramal is the Vice Chairperson of Piramal Group.
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