Bayer AG on Tuesday “legally and economically” separated material science business into a new unit named Covestro AG, reports C H UnnikrishnanCovestro, the rechristened material science (industrial chemicals and solutions) business unit of German life sciences-to-chemicals multinational Bayer AG, plans to sharpen its focus on the key emerging markets including India after having been carved out as an independent entity. The industry chemicals maker with key focus on automotive, construction and electronics sectors, may also make additional investments in these markets both for product development and manufacturing. "With the freedom and bold business direction of the new independent entity, we look forward to building a successful future for Covestro in India as it is the case with all our key markets," said Ajay Dhuranni, managing director, Covestro India Pvt Ltd, in an interview with BW Businessworld on Wednesday. As on today, we have built enough capacity in our existing manufacturing plants in India and the imports from the group's facilities in China are also sufficient to meet the current demand in the local market. But, in case the market expands with additional requirements in terms of technology and products, we can always think about new investments, Dhurani said. A year ago, Bayer had said that it wanted to focus entirely on the life science businesses – HealthCare and CropScience – and float MaterialScience on the stock market as a separate company. In this way Bayer is positioning itself as a world-leading company in the field of human, animal and plant health. Bayer’s board of directors had unanimously approved this decision. Bayer chief executive had in September 2014 said that the group’s intention is to create two top global corporations: Bayer as a world-class innovation company in the life science businesses, and material science unit as a leading player in its own segment. “Both these companies have excellent prospects for success in their respective industries. Employment levels are expected to remain stable over the next few years, both globally and in Germany, said Bayer CEO Marijn Dekkers announced last year. In recent years, Bayer has been focusing mainly on its life sciences activities with the launch of several novel pharmaceutical products. It had also had acquired the over-the-counter products business of US drug maker Merck & Co., Inc the same year. The group was also concentrating on successful development of the CropScience business. The life sciences business is currently account for about 70 per cent of Bayer's sales. Covestro will come out wth an initial public offer (IPO) and will be listed in Europe as a separate company in the next couple of months. Post the IPO, Bayer will eventually exit from this company as several private equity players have already shown interest in buying out the business. A key reason for the spin off and the IPO is to give Covestro direct access to capital for its future development as its access to funds from Bayer cold be constrained due to the group’s substantial investment needs of the life science businesses for both organic and external growth. But, as a separate company, Covestro can now align its organizational structures and strategic decisions faster in line with its specific industrial environment and business model. Covestro, as a separate entity in the space of industry chemicals and solutions, is currently Europe's fourth-largest and it had global sales of around EUR 11.7 billion in 2014. The company has a an employee strength of at least 17000 globally. Ranked among the top five chemical companies in India, Covestro has some 300 people in its workforce and it owns three factories located at Ankleshwar in Gujarat, Noida in UP and Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu. Recently, the company had doubled its TPU (thermoplastic polyurethanes) manufacturing capacity in Cuddalore. --
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In its quest to save on costs, Cygnus Hospitals does not invest in land and building. It operates on lease. The money it saves, it spends on quality and service. Starting from Haryana, the hospital group has spread to neighbouring Punjab and Rajasthan and plans to move into UP.Bihar and Madhya Pradesh in future. Dr Dinesh Batra, Director, Cygnus Hospitals talks to BW|Businessworld's Haider Ali Khan What does ‘Cygnus’ mean?The name ‘Cygnus’ is derived from a name of Constellation. As our name suggests, we at Cygnus are trying to create a star (hospital) in every district of northern India, especially in states of Haryana, Punjab and Delhi. And not only have we provided good infrastructure but, the good doctors. You are mostly active in Haryana, why is it so?We started from Haryana as we belong to the state. And there is a huge need of tertiary care in the country. And we have extended our services in Punjab and Rajasthan also. Are government policies in Haryana more favourable for you?We had interaction with the Chief Minister of Haryana and visited US and Canada with him. The government supported us and gave us an open window and single roof solutions to operate. The government has also asked for a proposal to work together in Public-Private partnership. We will submit the proposal within two to three months to the government of Haryana. Is there any plan to expand in states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh?We have started from our neighbourhood states of Punjab and Rajasthan. And yes, in due course of time we will move towards states like UP, Bihar etc. How many centres do you have at present?We have 10 centres, which are fully functional. By March 2016, it will be 15 and 50 by March 2018. How are you going to provide affordable healthcare to the people?See, this is the case of mindset. We need Rs 1 crore investments per bed which means for a 100 bed hospital, we require Rs 100 crore. But, we only spend Rs 10 crore, as we do not invest in land and building. We operate on lease. All our hospitals are running on lease model. Are you going to compromise on quality then?No, as we do not invest in asset building. The quality and service are what we focus upon. What is the state of government hospitals, as you are also a doctor?There are two major issues with government hospitals. First, most of the doctors at government hospitals are assigned a task which they are not supposed to do like a surgeon is involved in National Health programme etc. The roles are not as per qualification. The second issue is overcrowding. There is huge dearth of doctors in our country. A doctor has to look after 500 patients in a day; as a result they are not being able to do the justice with the patients. We also have lack of infrastructure like cardio care and trauma centres in government hospitals. Are you helping in Skill India initiative?We are definitely involved in skilling of people. We have a tie-up with IMS Health, and students from Jammu and Kashmir are trained under it, in lab technology. What is the future of Telemedicine in India?We will be able to tell only when we will start this service. After three months from now, I will be able to disclose as it is under experimental stages.
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Malaysia's IHH Healthcare Bhd, the world's second-biggest healthcare firm by market value, is buying a 73.4 per cent stake in India-based Ravindranath GE Medical Associates Private Ltd for 819 million ringgit ($195 million). The deal comes as private hospital chains benefit from growing numbers of more affluent Indians willing to pay for better-equipped clinics, given the poor state of public hospitals. "Together with our existing hospitals, the acquisition ... catapults us towards becoming one of the leading hospital groups in India," Tan See Leng, IHH managing director and chief executive, said on Friday. IHH will inject 169 million ringgit into the acquired business, known as Global Hospitals, to fund its capital expenditure requirements and optimise its cost of borrowing. Global Hospitals operates five hospitals with a total of 1,100 beds in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai. The number of beds is expected to rise to approximately 1,900 within five years, IHH said. Analysts expect private healthcare providers to see growing investor interest, given India's public spending on health is among the lowest in the world. Private equity investments into the sector stood at $552 million last year, slightly lower than the $786.2 million in 2013, according to Thomson Reuters data. Overseas firms including Dubai-based Aster DM Healthcare and ABV Group are also investing in luxury healthcare in India, attracted by strong demand for quality medical care which, due to lower costs and a weaker rupee, they can offer to patients at below international prices. IHH also owns 10.85 per cent of India's leading hospital chain Apollo HospitalsBSE 2.02 % Enterprise Ltd. CIMB Securities (India) Private Ltd and ICICI Securities Ltd were financial advisors on the deal, IHH said. Shares of IHH ended up 1 per cent at 5.85 ringgit versus a 0.7 per cent rise in the benchmark index. (Reuters)
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The government is ready to come out with a slew of policy decisions, including evolving a regulatory mechanism for the sector through a separate legislation and over hauling tax structure, to give a boost to medical devices manufacturing sector as a part of the Make in India programme and make it a $50-billion industry in the next five years, a top official on Friday (28 August) said.Secretary in the Department of Pharmaceuticals, V K Subburaj, said recommendations would soon be made to rectify the inverted duty structure for the growing medical devices sector.He said the departments of health and pharmaceuticals along with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) is working on the matter and soon they will make recommendations to the revenue department on the issue. An inverted duty structure impacts domestic industry adversely as manufacturers have to pay a higher price for raw material in terms of duty, while imported finished products land at lower duty and cost lesser. “The important hurdle (which the sector is facing) is the regulatory mechanism...The duty structure has to be modified. Health, DIPP and pharma are jointly discussing the issue...Probably by next week, we will finalise the recommendations,” Subburaj said here at a CII function.Domestic medical devices makers have been asking the Government to address this issue. “We will ensure that this deficiency gets corrected very shortly. That will set the tone for the medical devices industry in the country,” he added. Commenting on the potential of the sector, he said: “Now we have to scale it to $50 billion and to enable that, we have to take policy decisions.” Currently, the medical devices industry in India is estimated to be $5 billion annually. The secretary also said the department is working to create a separate vertical for medical devices in the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. “Once it becomes a $50-billion industry, I do not think we can afford to combine it with the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. There should be a separate Act for the sector,” he said. “We have combined it with drugs for long and that mistake is likely to be sorted out shortly. I think shortly we will have a separate vertical within this Act exclusively for medical devices,” Subburaj said. To give an identity to the subject, he said, the Government has empowered the Pharmaceuticals Department to take the medical devices sector. Earlier, different departments were handling different issues related with the sector such as — quality control was looked after by the Health Ministry, FDI by the DIPP, and export was taken care by the Commerce Ministry. The department, he said, is also working on the issue of the preference purchase procedures. “We are discussing with the electronics and MSME departments to see that products manufactured in India, especially made by the medium and small-scale sector, get preference for purchase,” he said.
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Conceding to concerns raised by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), India has decided to put an end to "repeat" animal testing for permission for a new drug.The Drug Technical Advisory Board (DTAB), government's chief advisory body, in its recent meeting decided to explore using other alternative methods other than animal studies. According to the advisory board, for drugs approved in other countries where complete toxicological data is generated, further toxicology study may not be required."The ban means countless animals won't have to face painful and often lethal poisoning during toxicity tests, as other animals have sadly already experienced", said Chaitanya Koduri, PETA India science policy adviser. She further added that PETA India will continue to work to ensure that modern, animal-free methods become the norm everywhere. Earlier, Union minister for women and child development Maneka Gandhi had written to the health minister regarding pre-clinical and toxicity studies on animals under the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945. The novel step, according to officials will further help in stopping unnecessary cruelty on animals. Recently, India also imposed ban on the import of cosmetics that have been tested on animals.
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July 19, 1958, in the little lanes of a small town Derabassi, Punjab was born a man who is now on track to change the face of healthcare in India. With the goal of being a doctor, ambition of being successful and the dream of being a leader at the tender age of 12, Dr Dinesh Batra started his quest to make a difference such that he leaves healthcare in a better position than he found it. Working his way through various hospitals across city and state boundaries from bottom to the top, Dr Batra was probably at the peak of his 25 year-long medical career when he was the CEO of Primus hospital in Chanakya Puri. Realizing, he had reached the peak on the path he was going with a lot of work and passion still left in him, he decided to change his path. Dr Dinesh Batra, Director, Cygnus HospitalsThus began the journey of Cygnus Hospitals with four doctors and a pharma entrepreneur (namely Dr Sudhir gupta, Dr Naveen Nishchal, Dr Shuchin Bajaj, Dr V. K. Rajoria and Mr Sunil Bhayana) who were concerned more with the health of others than the comfort of their own homes. A company, which started with this team, who would give their services for a fee to get some revenue going, started to gain momentum with the acquisition of a Hospital in Dwarka on Oct 1, 2011. Today, Cygnus Hospitals runs 10 hospitals across 3 states and is starting to become a known name in healthcare in North India. While starting the journey, a lot of effort went into studying Healthcare evolution and it was found that the myth surrounding the fact that it is difficult to get return on investment in smaller towns was broken. We decided not to invest in land and building which is a major capex investment. All Cygnus hospitals are either on lease or revenue sharing. The business model of Cygnus Hospitals revolves around taking up Underutilized units in tier 2 and tier 3 cities or leasing the assets created by third party, converting them into super specialty hospitals in order to ensure secondary and tertiary care in the remotest of areas around India. With hospitals currently running in cities like sonepat, panipat, karnal, Kurukshetra, Bhatinda, Tohana, amongst others, and newer ones coming up in small cities of Punjab and Rajasthan, Cygnus aims to take healthcare in India where it’s never ventured before, the smaller towns. Healthcare, as any other industry, faces three core issues which Cygnus through its business model hopes to resolve. The first one is availability. In a recent survey it was found that the ratio of beds to people in India is woefully lower than the standards set by the WHO. With the coming up of multiple hospitals that are being converted from underutilized units, Cygnus Hospitals aims to not only make that ratio more favorable but also not use additional land in doing so. The second issue is that of accessibility. Many big names in healthcare provide excellent services but only in big cities as a result of which the urban market is now saturated. Compare the 5 star facilities of a hospital in Delhi to a underutilized unit lying empty in a small town in Haryana and you notice a stark contrast. Healthcare services in tier 2 and tier 3 cities is still beyond reach and people have to travel long distances before they get access to proper healthcare. By taking healthcare to these smaller cities, Cygnus aims to eradicate that problem. Finally, there is the issue of affordability. Most people cannot afford the treatment at the prices some of the bigger chains charge in big cities. With Cygnus taking healthcare to tier 2 and tier 3 cities at a price range comfortable to the people of those cities, it wants to ensure that healthcare in this country is available, accessible and affordable. On being asked what was missing from tier 2 and tier 3 cities that Cygnus has provided, the answer was three pronged. There is a lack of facilities available to treat the three most common occurrences in these towns. The first one is medical emergencies which refer to strokes, shock, poisoning. The infrastructure and machinery required to deal with such cases is lacking. The second is trauma which requires a neurosurgeon to be able to fully gage the extent of the trauma. The third is cardiac arrests or heart problems which are the most common. The number of neurosurgeons and cardiologists is extremely low in more than 90 per cent of these cities. When there is an attempt to send the specialists, there is a lack of instruments and infrastructure which they can use. These are the three biggest contributions of Cygnus to these smaller towns which have contributed to saving hundreds and thousands of life because specialized treatment was available at the right time. On further being asked on how far he plans to take this, he said Cygnus wanted to work towards an idealistic scenario where each district in this country has a super specialty hospital and a parallel private healthcare structure is in place so not one out of the 1.25 billion people in this country ever die because they had problems with availing, accessing or even affording healthcare. The Cygnus vision was given a boost when it expanded to include Altius medicare and gain the trust of investors like Somerset and Fidelity to invest in them to help Cygnus grow. With the help of these developments and the business acumen possessed by Dr Batra and fellow directors, Cygnus is now expanding quickly. A plan of having 15 hospitals by March 2016 and 50 by March 2017 expanding to cover more states, the vision of healthcare for all might not be too distant a reality. A journey that started while growing up in a tier 2 city of Kurukshetra noticing the lack of proper healthcare facilities is now at a point where many kurkshetras across the country will have the same quality healthcare as any big metropolitan. Since 2011, when Cygnus first began, Dr Batra and Cygnus have come a long way, but as they themselves will admit, the journey has only just begun.
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Haider Ali KhanDefence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), India’s leading defence research organisation, has entered into licensing agreements with Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurveda for transfer of Seabuckthorn technology based products developed by the Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR). DRDO and Patanjali Ayurveda have entered into a deal to manufacture and market some herbal supplements and food products in India and abroad. The technology has been transferred under the DRDO FICCI ATAC (Accelerated Technology Assessment and Commercialisation) programme that has been established to identify spin-off technologies for commercial markets within India and abroad. DIHAR has pioneered cold arid-agro animal technologies for augmenting local availability of fresh food in the region. It will develop the product at Leh, where DIHAR is based and then give it to Patanjali for sale and marketing. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said, “Seabuckthorn is a unique product and apart from what has been commercialised, there are many more applications which Patanjali Ayurveda could explore to exploit the full potential of Seabuckthorn." He also added that DRDO in collaboration with Ficci under DRDO Ficci ATAC programme is working to commercialise more and more spin-off technologies for the benefit of society at large. Bhuvnesh Kumar, director of DIHAR, said that the farmers have adopted the technologies developed and are selling their yield to the army. He also said "This unique approach not only results in local availability of fresh food but also results in socio-economic development of Ladakh and stronger civil-military cooperation in this strategically important region."
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CII and Eli Lilly release white paper on diabetes care, reports Simar SinghAround 66.8 million people in India are diabetic and that number is only expected to rise in the next decade. Higher incomes, more sedentary lifestyles, diets rich in sugars and starches, and rising rates of high blood pressure are the current trends in the country that are associated with the spread of diabetes type 2.At the 3rd National NCD Summit: ‘Synergising Efforts in Diabetes Care’, Dr Jagdish Prasad, Director General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, highlighted the fact that India is at risk of becoming the diabetes capital of the world by 2025.The summit was organised in the Capital on Wednesday (12 August) by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company.“Rapid globalisation and lack of precautionary measures is the leading cause of diabetes in the country. Education and preventive screening would be key to avoid the burden of diabetes”, said Dr. Prasad. He stressed on the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle and its impact on diabetes. Our focus should be to avoid becoming the diabetes capital of the world”, continued Dr. Prasad.A white paper on diabetes care at the tertiary level was also released and the need to make scanning and early detection of diabetes, in an accessible manner was emphasised on.Calling diabetes, a pandemic in India, many participants at the summit stressed on the need to create technology that was simple to use and field friendly- something that is essential to creating a strong and widespread diagnostic base.
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Net profit for the quarter was adversely impacted by the one-time items as well as exceptional charges of Rs. 685 crore. C H Unnikrishnan reportsSun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, India's largest generic drug maker by sales, posted about 60 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 479 crore for the June quarter of financial year 2016 as compared to the year-ago quarter mainly due to huge one-time charges including impairment on fixed assets and goodwill. The financials for this quarter include several exceptional charges related to the integration of Sun Pharma and Ranbaxy businesses. Its sales for the quarter at Rs. 6,522 crore was up 3 per cent over same quarter last year. While its sales in India at Rs. 1,784 crore was up 11 per cent this quarter, the high margin US sales down 4 per cent. Net profit for the quarter was adversely impacted by the one-time items as well as exceptional charges of Rs. 685 crore, the company said on Tuesday. Sun Pharma managing director Dilip Shanghvi said in a statement on Tuesday (11 August) that the company's performance for the quarter has been impacted by certain one-time and exceptional charges which will drive synergies and overall profitability improvement in the long-term. "Nonetheless, we continue to invest significantly in research and development and in building critical talent for enhancing our specialty and complex generics pipeline,” he added.
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Graveyard shift and erratic work hours have made Bengaluru the hub of lifestyle diseases, reports K Chandra Mohan Bengaluru has witnessed an exponential growth of start-ups in recent years. For many Indian youth, the city became a dream destination. Of late, 'lifestyle' illnesses, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and so on have overtaken the so-called 'poverty' diseases of tuberculosis and diarrhoea as India's biggest killer.Although most of the companies are providing healthcare benefits, the working atmosphere has to change to save corporate warriors. Anwar Basha, who works on SAP platform in IBM says, "Though we have all facilities at the work place, it is difficult to find a healthy atmosphere. Irregular shifts and heavy workload are the main cause for increasing tobacco addiction among techie youth."He further added that the changing dynamics of social, economic and cultural changes are also making matters worse for the young population. Columbia Asia Hospitals has organised BIG 4 — A Corporate Health Forum — at Whitefield Hospital to draw attention of the corporate world. The forum cautioned against four "silent killer" diseases — diabetes, obesity, cardiac diseases and cancer — that the western lifestyle had spawned in India. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Nandakumar Jairam, chairman and group medical director, Columbia Asia Hospitals, India, said, "Preventing and controlling such diseases goes a long way in a healthier life and longevity. Thus, we have brought together health experts, on a common platform to look for solutions to improve the health of corporate India". Speaking on the sidelines of the health forum, Srikanth, Employee Health Scheme, Accenture, said, "Rest is often underrated among software professionals". The biggest challenge for most occupational physicians is to get people to participate in the wellness programmes. Dr Ajay Deshpande, country health manager, Shell India, said, "While safety can be made compulsory, it is not so in the case of health. We may make wearing seat belts compulsory but we cannot force people to sleep for a particular number of hours." Big Four is part of a larger initiative — Columbia Conversations — a health platform that connects Columbia Asia Hospital doctors and staff with the community for conversation, collaboration and debate.
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