The healthcare industry is undergoing an unprecedented change. The affordability and quality of healthcare are being profoundly affected by increased globalization, competition, cost consciousness, regulations and new technologies. The US is expected to spend up to 20% of GDP on healthcare by 2015.
The healthcare industry is undergoing an unprecedented change. The affordability and quality of healthcare are being profoundly affected by increased globalization, competition, cost consciousness, regulations and new technologies. The US is expected to spend up to 20% of GDP on healthcare by 2015. Yet 1 in4 workers remain uninsured. This crisis in healthcare access also extends to the majority of population in India. With public spending contributing a mere 20% of India’s total healthcare cost, up to 60% of individual income goes toward health related expenses. Growing affluence of the middle class demands better quality healthcare and creates new opportunities for state-of-the-art facilities and services.
The workshop on US-India Partnership in Drug Discovery and in Generics Organized by the Observer Research Foundation and the Asia Society brought together stakeholders from India and the US where issues critical to the coordination of public policy and firm-level strategies in the two countries were discussed. Participants were drawn from regulatory bodies, pharmaceutical companies, clinical research organizations, hospitals, institutional review boards, managed care companies, insurance companies, biotech companies, diagnostics companies, patient advocacy groups and bioethics experts. The conference underscored the increased potential for partnership in healthcare between the US and India India’s emergence as a preferred high-quality and low-cost supplier in the global healthcare industry may help the US lower its healthcare cost, while the US may help India in developing the skills and capabilities of its workforce. Common concerns and policy recommendations for US and India, and areas for further study and future actions, were identified at the workshop.
The views expressed above belong to the author(s). ORF research and analyses now available on Telegram! Click here to access our curated content — blogs, longforms and interviews.
PREV
