Commercialization of low cost healthcare products and technologies

Abstract

Health care products & technologies can embed and reinforce inequality within societies – or, conversely, can be a platform for the public combating of poverty and inequality. India is the best example to illustrate the need for medical technology to improve healthcare delivery. In the second most populous country of the world, existing health care delivery mechanisms are inadequate to meet the growing needs of the Indian population especially in smaller towns/ rural areas. Good quality private healthcare is out of reach for majority of India’s people. Innovative products and services are, therefore, needed to make healthcare affordable and accessible to a larger percentage of the population. However, commercialization of these products remains a major challenge for the manufacturers. Funding, talent, regulation & indigenous manufacturing are the areas that require major overhaul to facilitate commercialization of these products & fostering a culture of innovation in this sector. In the context of the current innovation scenario in India we have made an attempt to study the challenges for commercialization of low cost healthcare products & technologies through the analysis of products that succeeded & failed to make the cut at the commercialization stage.