Healthcare: Lessons from the pandemic & how to prepare for the future
Every adversity sows the seed of opportunity but whether it is leveraged depends on how the experiences are moulded to face the next challenge. Nowhere is this more relevant than in the healthcare sector, which is bang in the middle of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
While the spread of the virus has brought the global economy down to its knees, it has also reminded everyone that different spokes of the healthcare sector must work together. Be it diagnosis (read pathology), basic and emergency protection (read PPE kits and medical devices like ventilators) or treatment (drug research, medicines and hospitals), all the sub-segments of the industry need to function without disruption.
Not surprisingly, healthcare has stood out in attracting private investments. The first nine months of this year have already surpassed the $1-1.5 billion worth of private equity and venture capital money that the industry has been pulling in every year, according to data collated by VCCEdge.
If the current trends continue, the healthcare sector may also buck the broader trend where the number of companies attracting capital has declined, to at least match—if not improve—the tally of previous years where, on average, two healthcare firms were getting funded every week.
The pandemic has also shown the inadequacies of public and private healthcare delivery ecosystems. The diagnostics infrastructure took months to reach an optimal level to test infected patients. The hospital infrastructure faces a serious shortage of beds to cater to even those who are ready to pay a marked-up charge. Most critically, the process of drug and vaccine development is far from satisfactory. Some programmes that intersect in the public-private domain in India, like the government’s Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme, have been moving in the right direction. The number of patients under the scheme has doubled in its second year and half a million people have reportedly availed its benefits for Covid-19 alone.
But we are running behind in creating a national health stack and a national health register to maintain digitised records of citizens. Once in motion it could complement the decades-old, low-cost healthcare delivery systems like telemedicine, which got a leg-up in the last few months, for more effective and faster impact.
Overall, the pandemic has proven that both public and private institutions must invest more in the healthcare industry, and effectively use technology to face such a shock in the future. It has also shown the need for swifter business decisions with respect to product planning (devices); development of low-cost diagnostics processes; efficient hospital infrastructure utilisation without usurious charges that feed distrust; and more research for drug and vaccine development to tackle newer strains of viral and bacterial diseases.
To discuss the experiences of various stakeholders and learn the lessons to face challenges of the future, VCCircle is organising the 12th edition of the Healthcare Investment Summit on December 11, 2020 on a virtual platform.
By Jaideep Mehta, CEO, Mosaic Digital
By Satish Chander, Partner, True North
Sudarshan Jain, Secretary General, Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance
Pathology chains, hospitals, medical device makers, health insurers and drugmakers, especially vaccine developers, and drug research firms faced numerous challenges. And they continue to feel the stress over the public demand for a swifter and more effective response to the pandemic. What lessons can help handle such a situation in the future?
Speakers:
Anish Bafna, CEO and MD, Healthium Medtech
Pavan Choudary, Chairman and Director General, Medical Technology Association of India
Mayank Bathwal, CEO, Aditya Birla Health Insurance
Anand K, CEO, SRL Diagnostics
Moderator: Ranjani Raghavan, Associate Editor, VCCircle
Shalil Gupta, CBO, Mosaic Digital in conversation with Satish Chander, Partner, True North
Hospitals faced an unprecedented decline in occupancy levels as non-Covid patients postponed treatment. They also faced a Catch-22 situation as demand for telemedicine, which was traditionally seen as a means to reach the underserved population in the hinterland, spiked and they faced a pricing problem in the cities.
Can hospitals manage demand for beds with more telemedicine while keeping pricing at a level that’s acceptable to patients and enough to manage their own infrastructure? Can home healthcare tie-ups form the middle ground?
Speakers:
Vivek Srivastava, Co-founder & CEO, HealthCare atHOME India
Dr. K Ganapathy, Director, Apollo Telemedicine Networking Foundation
Raviganesh Venkataraman, CEO, Cloudnine Group of Hospitals
Moderator: Joseph Rai, Special Correspondent, VCCircle
Companies have tried to repurpose older drugs to treat COVID-19, even as the search for a vaccine continues globally. India is likely to also emerge as the manufacturing hub for the COVID-19 vaccine. Can the pandemic give a boost to innovative drug discovery research in India? How can the government and the drug regulator step in to monitor safe scientific research and for clinical trials while also fostering an environment for innovation?
Speakers:
Rahulkumar Darda, Chairman and Managing Director, Brinton Pharmaceuticals
Dr. Arun Anand, COO, Immuneel Therapeutics
Moderator: Ranjani Raghavan, Associate Editor, VCCircle
The two most heavily funded sub-segments of the health-tech space – e-pharmacy and online doctor consultation – got a huge fillip during the lockdown. The pandemic has also revived the interest of early-stage investors in health-tech. While consolidation is afoot in e-pharmacy, other health-tech segments need to see if the spike in monetisation and run rate can be sustained. Will this be the beginning of Health-tech 2.0 in India?
Speakers:
Vivek Tiwari, CEO, Medikabazaar
Tarun Sharma, MD, MegaDelta Capital
Satish Kannan, Co-founder & CEO, MediBuddy-DocsApp
Moderator: Narinder Kapur, Correspondent, VCCircle
Sudarshan has a strong passion for healthcare and the education sector. Currently, he is the Secretary-General of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (www.ipa-india.org), Senior Advisor - Apax Partners and Board member of multiple organizations. He has served in several leadership positions for over 40 years in Healthcare industry (Lupin, Johnson & Johnson, Piramal, Abbott) and was formerly the Managing Director at Abbott Healthcare Solutions.
His current Board engagements include Abbott India, Healthium Limited (Apax portfolio company), Zandu Chemicals Limited, Indian Education Society (IES), Advisory Board of Narsee Monjee University, Mumbai (NMIMS). He is the Visiting Faculty at Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad. He has contributed in shaping the healthcare policy and improving access to healthcare in India.
Sudarshan is an Alumnus of St. Stephens College, Delhi University and Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad.
Satish joined True North in 2005 and is based in Bengaluru. He joined the firm as part of the business management team and worked with companies across healthcare, media, retail and industrials. He is now part of the investment team and is responsible for investments in healthcare sector.
He holds a Mechanical Engineering degree from the IIT, Chennai and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from the IIM, Kolkata. Prior to joining True North, Satish had six years of experience working with Tata Motors, Accenture and JP Morgan in India.
Mr. Pavan Choudary is the Managing Director of Vygon, a leading French Multinational in the field of Healthcare, He is the bestselling author of Healthcare and Management books like The Rx Factor and How a Good Person Can Really Win. He also has as his co-authors Dr. Kiran Bedi, the Lieutenant Governor of Pondicherry & Mr Anil Shastri, Ex Union Finance Minister. He has done a column with the Times of India, currently writes for Firstpost and is the TV Host of “Hum Aisey Kyun Hain” where he takes up several healthcare issues with leading doctors and policy makers of the country.
Two areas in medicine are especially close to his heart, Patient Safety & Quality in Healthcare and Safe Neonatal Vascular Access. He is the main person behind the Neonatal PICC movement in India. He is also one among the only two industry members, nominated by the GOI on the DTAB Sub Committee for provision of compensation for Medical Device Malfunction.
He is the recipient of several awards like the Intellectual Icon of the year award, Business Excellence Award, Eric Hoffer Award etc. He sits on some of the most prestigious advisory boards/boards of India in the commercial and socio-political space. Notable among these from the healthcare point of view are Medical Technology Association of India, Transasia Biomedicals, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Memorial Trust, Executive Access, Bhartiya Videsh Niti Parishad, Blue Circle (Unified Leadership Pvt. Ltd.) and Wisdom Village Publications.
He is consulted by leaders from different works of life on business & life. For more details, visit www.pavanchoudary.in.
An Emeritus University Professor, Dr. Ganapathy has played an instrumental role in the growth and development of Telehealth in India. Past President of the Telemedicine Society of India, Former Secretary and Past President Neurological Society of India, Dr. Ganapathy is a DIGITAL HEALTH EXPERT for WHO. He has been well published for over the last 45 years and made more than 700 presentations at national and international conferences.
Vivek Tiwari, is the Founder and CEO of Medikabazaar, India’s largest online platform for medical supplies. An alumnus of IIM Calcutta, Vivek has an extensive experience in leadership roles which he occupied at prominent global conglomerates like Nestle, Telenor, Maxis Telecom, and Tata Group. Some of his notable achievements include successfully establishing joint ventures with leading dialysis equipment manufacturers, namely Nipro (Japan) and Fresenius Medical Care (Germany).
During his earlier experiences, Vivek successfully managed and established tertiary care clinics in tier 2, 3 cities, in India, an experience from which he ideated Medikabazaar. He is a distinguished member of the consortium of ace professionals in the Indian medical devices sector. At the same time, he also holds an honorary position at a global regulatory and marketing organization for medical devices and equipment.
Mr. Vivek Srivastava is the Co-founder & CEO of HCAH, India’s largest disease management company outside of the hospital. HCAH has investment from the Burman family (promoters of Dabur), founders of the HAH, UK, and Quadria Capital.
He is an IIT Delhi & ISB Alumnus. HCAH is the third healthcare business he has started. He has worked in Fortune 500 companies such as Indian Oil and Capital One before his MBA from ISB. Post his MBA, he started with Ambit Corporate Finance as an investment banker. During his stint with GTI Capital(a private equity fund), he started Nova’s IVF business, besides leading fundraising and M&A for Nova and Air Works (investee companies of GTI). After a brief stint of doing investment into Africa, he joined the Burman family to start the family office for Gaurav Burman. He did 6 investments for the family and represented the family on many Boards. Vivek aims to raise the quality of care and improve health outcomes for patients. He has led HCAH to become the first company in the country to be QAI accredited under their homecare standards.
His sensitivity towards Customer Delight makes HCAH a Customer-centric healthcare services delivery provider backed up by NPS ( Net Promoter Score) which has been >65% under his administration throughout.
He has also led HCAH to become Best Places to Work certified company, a testament to the people practices in the company.
In July 2018 Vivek won the prestigious, Entrepreneur of the year Award for healthcare services at the 8th Annual Entrepreneur India award. He is a fitness freak and is an avid reader too.
Mayank Bathwal is the Chief Executive Officer at Aditya Birla Health Insurance Co. Ltd., a joint venture between Aditya Birla Group and MMI Holdings of South Africa. He has been with the Aditya Birla Group for 26+ years, and has held multiple leadership roles across insurance, financial services, manufacturing, energy and power, in India and Indonesia.
He set up Aditya Birla Health Insurance in 2015, and under his leadership, within a short span of time, ABHI has grown into one of the recognized and fastest growing health insurance company in India. Mr. Bathwal spearheaded a very well diversified strategy of entering the health insurance market with a differentiated business model which focuses on the ‘health’ in health insurance, thereby challenging the traditional approach of the industry thus far.
He is a fellow Chartered Accountant and a member of the ICWA and ICSI. He is the co-Chair of FICCI Health Insurance Committee and is also actively involved with a number of industry forums such as CII and IAMAI.
He is an avid reader, a fitness enthusiast, and passionate about every Indian having easy access to health insurance.
Anish Bafna took over as the CEO & Managing Director of the Healthium Group in August, 2018, when he returned to India with the dream of creating India’s most trusted Medtech company and Healthium was formed under his aegis as an amalgamation of three companies:
- The Erstwhile Sutures India Ltd , Quality Needles, the largest independent manufacturer of surgical suture needles in the world and Clinisupplies, the second largest brand of urology products in the United Kingdom.
Under Anish’s leadership, Healthium has undergone a transformational journey on quality, compliance and R & D and is now present in 70 countries across the globe and 500 districts in India with a strong team of 2700 employees.
Anish with the Healthium team, has pursued the “Atmanirbhar Bharat “agenda by promoting indigenous technology and Innovation. Under his aegis, Healthium owns 55 patents in India and U.S including those applied for. The manufacturing facilities have also continued the thrust on high quality with 510K (USFDA), CE and ISO approvals.
During the Lockdown, under his guidance, the facilities have continued production to ensure continued supply of essential medical devices for emergency surgeries. Trushield, India’s 1st anti-microbial gloves was manufactured and launched during this period. Sironix range of Arthroscopy products for shoulder and knee were created and launched to fill market need gaps using patented functional designs to simplify lives for surgeons and better patient outcomes, under his aegis.
Anish‘s career spans 27 years with a strong focus on the Healthcare and devices sector, with stints in multiple countries. In his last assignment, he was President Japan, for Baxter International.
In his earlier stints, he served as the Regional Head- Emerging Asia at Baxter in Singapore, overseeing the operations of India and South East Asia from 2015 to 2017.
Anish along with his family have lived in Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Singapore and Japan before relocating to India. He has a proven track record of building sustainable and profitable businesses, with a strong focus on continuous business improvement.
Anish plays tennis, is an avid reader and likes to delve in history.
Anand has over 25 years of robust work experience in the healthcare industry specialising in Diagnostics and Laboratory services in India, South Asia, Africa and Middle East. He comes with deep subject knowledge of diagnostics and healthcare industry, combined with strong business acumen, allowing him to view business with a wider lens then narrow it down to connect the dots, identify business drivers, understand complex issues, take actions and drive results. Anand is currently the CEO of India’s leading diagnostic chain that is spread across 600+ Cities, 30 States and Union Territories. He joined SRL from Apollo Hospitals Group where he was the CEO of their Diagnostic Business Unit of AHLL, based at Hyderabad. Anand is a talented and gifter leader with extensive experience in leading Diagnostics Companies, including Neuberg Diagnostics, Metropolis, and others.
He has handled various portfolios covering Operations, Sales, Network / Channel development and management, Marketing, Strategic Business Development, Greenfield projects including international, M&A – domestic and international, Hospital lab management contracts, PPP, P&L responsibilities, integration & change management and partner development.
Anand earned his Graduate degree in Medical Lab Technology from JIPMER Medical College, Pondicherry with a major in Marketing from IIAM, Mumbai. He has also completed an Executive Program in Strategic management from IIM, Ahmedabad.
Anand is actively involved in various industry forums in India and abroad as a speaker or panelist.
Raviganesh Venkataraman is currently the Chief Executive officer at Cloudnine Group of Hospitals and based in Bengaluru. As the CEO, Ravi is responsible for the development and execution of Cloudnine’s business strategy, across all functions and business verticals with specific focus on customer experience, clinical quality, operational excellence, doctor relations, talent and leadership development.
As a seasoned professional with over 25 years of working experience across verticals, Ravi has been a part of several industries and geographies in India and Asia with proven skills in business strategy, project planning and execution, supply chain management, sales and distribution and organisation development. Ravi was until recently a director on the board of Metro Cash & Carry India and has held leadership roles in the past with Bharti Airtel, Subhiksha Retail, Coca Cola India, Titan Industries and Godrej & Boyce.
Ravi holds a Masters in Management studies from SP Jain Institute of Management & Research and a B.E in Production engineering from KJ Somaiya College of Engineering. An avid reader and a perpetual learner, Ravi is fond of literature and a loves classical music.
Physician Business Leader with experience in strategic roles across the value chain in biotech drug development and business on a background in translational oncology from Harvard. Passionate about “accessible medicine for all”.
Currently, Chief Operating Officer at Immuneel Therapeutics - a young Indian organisation driven by the purpose of developing and delivering cutting edge yet affordable cell and gene therapies for cancer in India.
Previously, served leadership roles in Industry and academia as Senior Director & Head, Global Portfolio Management, Biologics @ Dr. Reddy’s, Head, Clinical Development @ Biocon, and Assistant Director, Translational Research for Oncology at MGH/Harvard, Boston.
Satish Kannan is a pioneer in the online healthcare industry. With a singular focus to bring a paradigm shift in the healthcare industry, he has, in a relatively short period of time, ushered his organization to a leadership position. He is well on his way to achieving his goal of making high-quality healthcare accessible to everyone across the nation. Satish Kannan or SK as he is popularly known is an alumnus of IIT Madras - B.Tech & M.Tech in Electrical engineering. After completing his education, SK started his career with Philips Healthcare, being involved with Research and Development on specialized equipment, used by cardiologists for conducting surgeries.
Post that SK began his leadership journey by co-founding DocsApp (a 24x7 online doctor consultation platform) to make high-quality healthcare accessible to over a billion people in India. SK is now at the helm of affairs of the vastly expanded entity of MediBuddy-DocsApp as Chief Executive Officer.
SK’s achievements have been acknowledged by Forbes - he has been featured in the Forbes 30 under 30 list, 2017 (Asia) and Forbes 30 under 30 list, 2018 (India), for his contribution to the Indian health-care sector. Recently, he won the title of “Young Achiever of the Year” at National Awards for Marketing Excellence 2020.
When not focused in transforming the healthcare sector, the former IITian loves to read books, travel, and practice yoga.
True North traces its origins back to 1999, when it was originally named India Value Fund. Today is one of India’s leading home grown private equity funds, founded with a focus on investing in and transforming mid-sized profitable businesses into world-class industry leaders, built on the strong foundation of True North Values which are embodied within the principles of ‘The Right Way’.
True North has built deep knowledge and skills in the Indian markets and has successfully launched six separate investment funds with a combined corpus of over US$ 2.8 billion including co-investments. True North’s insights and understanding of India has been sharpened over the last two decades by investing in more than 40 Indian businesses. It has successfully guided these companies in making the transition into well-established and large businesses that are valuable, enduring and socially responsible.
The company has significant focus on and extensive experience of evaluating and investing in multiple businesses across a range of segments in the Indian healthcare sector having invested over US$ 520 million across 10 companies.
The True North team has been structured with a balanced mix of 13 Investment Managers and 18 Business Managers, who bring with them several hundred man-years of industry experience.
MegaDelta Capital is an Alternate Investment Advisory firm, advising India focused mid-market growth fund and founded by individuals with ~50 years investing experience who formerly set up NEA India. MegaDelta partners with exceptional entrepreneurs across sectors of Healthcare, Enterprise Technology and Consumer, in backing companies that have either redefined existing markets or created new ones.
VCC Events opens up the avenues for participation. Join hands to be a part of India’s largest gathering of alternative investments leaders, industry stakeholders and Asia’s influential limited partners, general partners and marquee advisors. Your chance to actively participate and augment yourself as thought leaders.
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