“Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.”
– Boris Pasternak
Policy limbo
"Rare diseases" affect only a tiny slice of the population—but in a country of India's scale, they add up to anywhere between 70 million and 100 million people
Most of these diseases have no cure or treatment, and all too often, it just doesn't make sense for pharma companies to invest in them
But thanks to favourable laws and incentives in places like the US and Europe, global sales of "orphan" drugs have risen far faster than their regular counterparts
Can India—where affordability and access are both huge issues—come up with its own solution to the intrinsic demand-supply problem of rare diseases?
“I have broken bones while sleeping.”
P* is 34. She lives in Borivali, a suburb of Mumbai, the city where she was born and raised. She works at an office in one of the city’s commercial hubs and spends hours on the infamous local trains every day. Much like most people in the city.
But P’s life is starkly different from the 18 million-odd people she encounters on these trains.
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