IVF market expected to expand to Rs 500 cr by 2022

By the year 2022, when India celebrates 75 years of Independence, the country’s market for In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) is expected to grow to Rs 500 crore, as an increasing number of childless couples adopt artificial medical treatment to achieve blissful parenthood.

Just six years from now, according to the United Nation’s estimates, India is expected to emerge the world’s most populous nation with nearly 150 crore people, by 2024. Clearly, while infertility is increasing among resource-rich people, the lower income groups could contribute more to the population explosion. But this increasing infertility among the rich is, ironically, opening fresh opportunities for surrogate mothers from the lower income groups to earn decent money for their own natural-born children.

“On an average, we get 10 surrogacy proposals from such young women everyday, or nearly 4,000 per annum. We have them tested for medical fitness before they could become surrogate mothers. In return, these needy women get around Rs 5 lakh for renting their womb,” Sarthak Bakshi, CEO, International Fertility Centre (IFC), New Delhi, told BusinessLine . This money is deposited directly into these women’s bank accounts to enable them to plan a future for their kids.

But surrogacy is not the only medical treatment for childless couples to create their own families. There is a whole range of other methods where they can become parents for fees ranging from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh per couple. “The IVF market is growing at a CAGR of 28 per cent, and is expected to be around $775 million (Rs 495 crore) by 2022 in India,” he said.

To tap into this expanding market, IFC, founded in 2012, has 14 centres across New Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Nepal. It plans to set up 26 new fertility centres by 2020. While a quarter of these centres will be set up in West Asia and South-East Asia, the Indian centres will be located mainly in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities and towns, Bakshi said.

For this expansion, IFC will invest over Rs 50 crore, taking both the organic and inorganic routes. “So far, we have invested from our own accruals, but we might go in for the franchisee model from next year.” An investment of between Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 3.5 crore is required to set up a new centre, measuring nearly 5,000 sq feet, excluding the cost of land. IFC has so far provided its services to couples from 50 countries, seeking treatment for infertility.

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