Man…. India can really take a person down. Unfortunately, I was not able to join the group today because I got a stomach bug. We were pre-warned about getting sick, but I didn’t realize it would affect so many people. With that being said, seeing India is worth the illness, and you just have to be careful when you visit.
So, yesterday we spoke with three big pharma companies, Novartis, Sanofi, and Cipla. The first two discussed their rural program initiatives, while the third spoke about their international development.
Novartis’ Arogya Parivar rural program involves a 360 approach to getting medicine into rural India. It is a for-profit model that entails investing in all aspects of the rural health care from education to infrastructure. Furthermore, they package the medicine in small dosages to make it more affordable to their target customers.
Novartis said they went for the for-profit model instead of a CSR direction because it made the program more sustainable. If the program was a CSR then it could be subject to disbandment during economic downturns. Therefore, the for-profit model insures sustainability and sustainability insures reaching more rural areas.
In summation, Novartis has been able to achieve what so many NGO’s have failed at, so should we rethink our approach…..
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