The Hindu Business Line : Playing in the shallows

The high-growth pharma-healthcare-life sciences sector in India appears reluctant to venture deeper into the technology waters. eWorld tracks the scene.

The pharma-healthcare-life sciences or PHL sector is being dubbed the country’s next sunrise industry after the information technology or IT industry, which saw a blistering pace of growth in the late-1990s.

However, collaboration between these two industries on home ground appears to be less than favourable.

At a time when IT is seen as a means to gain an edge over the competition and to find quick-fix solutions for most problems, the PHL sector is yet to see significant IT implementation.

While Indian IT majors do ‘cutting-edge’ work for overseas clients in this space, few operate in the domestic market, mainly offering ERP and SCM applications, as eWorld found..

According to Apurva Chamaria, Category Marketing Manager —Life sciences and Health care, HCL Technologies, the PHL space in India is nascent.

“We are yet to see corporate hospitals take off in a big way. Most PHL companies are in the process of acquiring other firms. Only when they reach a sizeable mass will they think of IT implementation and that is unlikely to happen before two-three years,” he says.

Niche products in demand

However, HCL is seeing demand for niche software in this sector — lab information systems (ERP software for small labs), drug discovery software that predict and design molecules, and electronic data capture solutions pertaining to clinical trials.

HCL is working with Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals to develop a documentation and content management tool specifically for R&D work.

It has also developed regulatory and compliance software for Glenmark Pharmaceuticals that electronically documents data on new drugs before being submitted for USFDA approvals.

This range of solutions may seem small compared to HCL’s overseas offerings — IPR solutions, drug discovery and development tools (including those for drug design, lead identification and clinical trials), regulatory and market analysis software, drug tracking software that prevents counterfeiting, laboratory management systems and tools to manage, document and maintain data generated by medical equipment.

“India is not big enough for us to pan out our offerings. But we are working on some niche solutions,” says Chamaria.

These include a tool to verify and validate code so as to build future applications on existing IT implementation and a manufacturing solution framework for pharmaceutical plants to document all control aspects.

Bullish on clinical trials

TAKE Solutions, on the other hand, feels the Indian market has potential to accept a wide range of PHL offerings.

TAKE entered this market in 2004 and saw revenues more than tripling in a year — from Rs 16.28 crore in 2004-05 to Rs 51.66 crore in 2005-06.

The company’s offerings span electronic submissions, structured product labelling, document management, governance, risk and compliance.

It is particularly bullish on the demand for solutions in the clinical trials space.

“As trials are becoming global and diverse in nature, there is a need to have a larger and more stratified patient population. One needs to integrate disparate data sources,” says Ram Yeleswarapu, President and Chief Executive Officer, TAKE Solutions.

The company is currently developing applications for clinical data analytics, and reporting and streamlining of clinical development processes. “Given the present merger and acquisition and outsourcing activity in India, there is a need to consolidate and create collaborative software that will enable real-time data integration,” he says.

Integrated products

Wipro HealthCare IT Ltd (WHCIT) seems to have anticipated this need early on. For the last five years, it has been selling a hospital information system (HIS) that integrates 40 modules covering areas such as clinical administration, supply chain, billing and business intelligence.

“Healthcare providers in India want IT solutions that address the all-round needs of hospitals labs, wards, patients and doctors” says Prasenjit Lahiri, Head - Business Operations, WHCIT.

Wipro’s clinical information system is another offering targeted at small hospitals and clinics. It also has a laboratory information system that facilitates online analysis, and recording and tracking of samples. This includes special modules supporting biochemistry, haematology, microbiology, serology, cytology, pathology and immuno-haematology.

“These solutions (when interfaced) aid consultants in diagnosis. At the administrative level, billing leakage and wastage is reduced.

All of this leads to reduced patient waiting-time and better patient experience,” says Lahiri.

Wipro has 50 clients (including some in West Asia and the Asia-Pacific region) for its HIS offering and has been seeing 30 per cent revenue growth in the PHL segment year-on-year.

Lahiri puts the Indian market for IT in healthcare at about Rs 400 crore including hardware, software and networking and sees it growing at 15-20 per cent annually.

In comparison, the global market was estimated at $10 billion by a Forrester report. “IT spends by most Indian hospitals are 1-2 per cent of their total revenues, while in the US and Europe it is 4-5 per cent,” he says.

The IT-spend pie

But this is changing. The market seems to be opening up to niche IT solutions, as Wipro introduced a retail pharmacy solution this fiscal, addressing purchase and supply chain functions.

“We also see future opportunity for interfacing HIS with lab equipment and working on business intelligence,” he says.

Wipro has also developed a business intelligence offering; a dashboard solution that monitors and evaluates clinical and non-clinical data.

These include parameters like operating-room utilisation rate, failure to rescue rate, outpatient wait time, medication intervention rate, pathology lab results turnaround time, zero stock days and inventory turnover rate.

According to a 2006 report by research firm Gartner, IT spending by the Indian healthcare sector (private and government), with 14 per cent CAGR since 2004, will exceed $1 billion in 2009. However, a large portion of this is likely to be spent on telecom services and equipment and not software.

The report attributes this projected growth mainly to the increasing privatisation of the healthcare sector fuelled by the demand for high levels of care and the government’s commitment to establishing new infrastructure as part of the rural health mission.

However, poor management practices and lack of government commitment could inhibit progress in this area, it said.

archana@thehindu.co.in

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