The diabetes capital of the world with as many as 50 million people suffering from type-2 diabetes, India has a challenge to face. However, medical experts feel that timely detection and right management can go a long way in helping patients lead a normal life. A couple of major pharmaceutical companies are focusing on creating non-invasive methods to cure the disease.
A panel discussion took place at HealthTech India event, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi on Saturday (February 04).
Eminent personalities from big pharmaceutical companies such as Abbott Diabetes Care India, Roche Diabetes Care India met with a delegation from the European Union (EU) who expressed their desire to fund such innovations and look forward to collaborating with India at a grand level.
The panel discussion was also attended by renowned doctors from top organisations such as Max and The George Institute for Global health. Experts, however, were of the view that the technology is still a far-fetched dream.
Dr S V Madhu, Professor and Head UCMS, Dr Y P Munjal Chief Consultant Centre for Diabetes were also a part of the discussion panel.
“The main aim of the conference was the opportunity to network and meet people from this domain, who wish to partner with us in this initiative and also to find out how this industry can function with the government,” said Siddharth Roy, Managing Director, Roche Diabetes Care India.
Tania Friederichs, Head of Research and Innovation Sector Delegation of the EU to India suggested that the EU is willing to fund such investments in India and will encourage innovations in this domain.
“We believe that India and the European Union should collaborate and work on innovation of non invasive technologies as we both are facing the same challenge," she added.
Asked if there has been any significant development in this sector so far, Amar Bhanushali, Country Head and General Manager of Abbott Diabetes said: “The invention of LibrePro is the biggest breakthrough in this domain so far. This is a minimal pain causing device to monitor glucose and blood sugar level in the body, but we are working very hard on developing a painless device for monitoring the same.”
Dr Sujeet Jha, Director, Institute of Endocrinology, stressed that Max is doing a lot of innovation in this regard and has achieved some success at clinical level.
Diabetes is a chronic medical condition, that is, it can be curbed at the initial level by introducing lifestyle changes and controlled after its incidence through medicines in early stages and administration of external insulin in advanced stages. But it would not be wrong to say that it cannot be cured completely and lasts a lifetime.
