MUMBAI - Swiss drug maker Novartis recently launched its ace anti-diabetes drug Galvus in India to take Merck's Januvia head on, but the company's larger focus seems to be shifting fast from the mega cities to the rural market where "real India lives."

Launched under the banner of "Arogya Parivar," or Healthy Family, the initiative aims at the predominantly rural tier-three and tier-four markets that have been hitherto untouched by other pharmaceutical and health care companies.

"We knew that we could play an important role in meeting significant medical needs, but selling or donating medicines was not enough. A sustainable, large-scale improvement in health care could only happen if several components were considered holistically and became a normal way of doing business," Oliveier Jarry, head of Arogya Parivar told PharmAsia News.

The rural healthcare initiative occurred to Novartis in 2006 following observations made by Novartis CEO Daniel Vassella about the 65 percent of India's population living in its rural areas and the need to effectively reach needy patients in those areas with a viable business model.

"India has one of the largest populations of more than 260 million people living below the poverty line, and that's where we need quality healthcare to reach," Jarry told local media Sept. 17.

Unveiling the broad structure of the plan, Novartis India Vice Chairman Ranjit Shahani said that Arogya Parivar is organized around a central marketing and planning team responsible for creating materials used in the field.

Like many other Indian and multinational drug companies, Novartis itself had concentrated in tapping tier one and two cities in India. But Arogya Parivar has unique field operations. The operation spreads over the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and parts of Uttar Pradesh and is structured into independent cells, each covering a 20-mile radius.

Each of these cells are managed by a supervisor and assisted by health educators. The main role of the educators is to raise health awareness among the target population about diseases, prevention and treatments; refer patients to doctors; brief physicians on treatment alternatives and make products available through pharmacies.

Currently, Arogya Parivar operates 26 cells through four states and expects to have 200 such cells by year end. The program has 10 health care modules that reach more than 10 million people and deal with diseases such as TB, respiratory infections, skin and gynecological infections, diabetes, prenatal health, intestinal worms, acid reflux, cough and cold and allergies, according to Novartis.

When asked if Arogya Parivar was a corporate social responsibility plank, Novartis' Shahani quipped, "This is a social business and it's a sustainable business. We hope to break even soon."

While averting questions about the number of people deployed or the money spent on the program, Novartis officials revealed that Arogya Parivar is focusing on 24 products from Sandoz (Novartis' generic drugs arm) that primarily address treatments for tuberculosis, mother and child care, malnutrition, respiratory and gastrointestinal problems.

Novartis has tuned its program to market medicines that are simple to use and have packaging and educational materials that are relevant to local rural populations.

"Though pricing of products are not very different from those in cities, Novartis is looking at outsourcing manufacturing drugs so that those can become affordable to the poorer patients," Olivier told PharmAsia News.

Interestingly, British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline is also planning a rural foray in India to participate in an overall market growth that exceeds 14 percent year on year (PharmAsia News, Sept. 3, 2008).

- Vikas Dandekar (v.dandekar@elsevier.com)

Novartis Designs “Arogya Parivar” To Reach Real India In Its Rural Centers

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