Pharma veterans discuss ideas for building successful companies at IIMPACT HEALTH 2021

The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad’s alumni-led Healthcare Special Interest Group and TiE Mumbai organised IIMPACT HEALTH 2021: Global Shifts, Disruptions & The Age of Unicorns – Scaling Healthcare Innovation in India conclave from 16th to 17th September, 2021. The conclave brought together thought leaders, VCs, successful Indian and global healthcare and healthtech entrepreneurs to decode what it takes to build a large and successful healthcare company in India, the institutions notified via a joint statement.

The statement informed that the welcome address was conferred by Amit Mookim, President, TiE Mumbai where he underlined some of the real-world challenges to be solved by healthcare entrepreneurs. He said, “The pandemic has stretched poor healthcare infrastructure, severely impacted mental health and has increased obesity risks. This has thus accelerated tech adoption, has fast-tracked innovation and re-prioritized public health spends.”

Further, in his inaugural address Professor Saral Mukherjee, Faculty, Production and Quantitative Methods Area, IIMA, and Dean (Alumni and Externa Relations) said, “Indian pharma is at the cusp of a once-in-a-lifetime disruption with drastic change in supply chain infrastructure, decline of small traders, increased differentiation, emergence of D2C brands, centrality of supply chain analytics and shifts in power balance.”

Adding to it, Sudarshan Jain, Secretary General, Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) and anchor, IIMA Healthcare, ASIG, said,  “India has gone through a lot of change in the last 18 months. Indian startups are at a cusp of great growth with the right mix of demographics and technology. Great ideas, endurance, talent and risk capital will create the right environment for success.”

Besides, Axel Baur, Senior Partner and Pharma and Healthcare Practice Leader, Asia, Mckinsey & Company, in his address, said that COVID has brought healthcare to the forefront in many ways. There is a 5-6x increase in telemedicine traffic in 2020 and IT and healthcare have seen the most PE/VC deals in ’20. Several innovations are in the pipeline, which will disrupt healthcare landscape by 2040 – These are namely innovative vaccines, cell therapy and regenerative medicine, tech-enabled care delivery, AI and cognitive devices, 3D printing, etc. He added that customer-centric digital health value pools are expected to grow at 22 per cent CAGR by 2025. Digital health is likely to grow from less than two per cent penetration currently to around 15 per cent and grow at 35 per cent CAGR. e-diagnostics, teleconsulting, e-pharmacy, B2B marketplace will comprise $31 billion online spend in 2031 while offline spend will rise to $177 billion at nine per cent CAGR.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Executive Chairperson, Biocon Biologics and Executive Chairperson, Biocon, in her keynote address said that companies that challenge the status-quo, stand out and make a mark, those that differentiate and follow a business model, which is not a me-too model and create value are the ones that succeed. She added that approvability of ideas is low in biotech, the gestation period being longer; while in IT, it is much faster. VCs need to invest in high science, bold innovative ideas and understand the risk and opportunity, and know how to measure value.