| |AUGUST 202619worked with distributors, NBFCs, and insurance partners to ensure therapies like Keytruda are available at less than 15 percent of global prices, making them accessible to a wider patient base. Such collaborations demonstrate how financing innovations, whether through insurance, co-payment schemes, or subscription-based models, can redefine affordability in India.Learning from global ecosystemsWe must look to Cambridge, U.S., as a benchmark for what India should aspire to. With 1,000 startups, 25,000 PhDs, and billions in funding from NIH and venture capital, Cambridge has created fertile ground for novel drug development. China, too, has scaled rapidly, with thousands of biotech trials and a government actively enabling talent to return and build local innovation. By contrast, India lacks deep collaboration between academia, venture capital, and pharma, and has produced only a handful of significant global deals. We don't yet have even five examples of NCEs that emerged from such an ecosystem here.Building India's pathwayFor India to achieve its first billion-dollar drug, Khan outlines a multi-pronged approach. First, strengthen collaboration between academia, startups, and investors. Second, expand clinical trial infrastructure and regulatory pathways that don't stall innovation. Third, incentivize global talent to return and build careers in Indian biotech and biomedical research. This is not about one player: pharma, hospitals, insurers, VCs all must work seamlessly, the way ecosystems in Cambridge and China operate.With the right models, India could reach its milestone sooner than expected. In this regard, Ayushman Bharat is a potential game-changer, covering half a billion people and offering pathways to scale affordable therapies nationwide. If we can serve a quarter of a million patients at the right price, we'll cross a billion dollars very soon.For India, the challenge is not in the science alone but in building the ecosystem to sustain it. POBy expanding indications, building innovative access models, and lowering price points, the therapy could quickly scale towards a billion-dollar mark
< Page 9 | Page 11 >