Drugmakers Hunt for Patients in India’s Remote Corners
- International drugmakers target lower-income patients
- Eli Lilly-funded program does door-to-door diabetes testing
Health workers conduct tests to ascertain the risk level of Diabetes and Hypertension at a home in Thanakulan village in Sonipat District, Haryana, India, on Thursday, July 13, 2017.
Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/BloombergFirst, foreign food brands flooded India with chips, cookies and soft drinks that fundamentally changed the nation’s eating habits. Now, Big Pharma wants to cash in on an upsurge in cases of diabetes and heart disease in the country’s most distant corners.
Global pharmaceutical companies, from Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly & Co. to Switzerland’s Novartis AG, are heading into smaller cities and rural areas to learn about the health-care needs of about 70 percent of the population. These remote regions of the developing world are the final frontier for the international drug industry.