Medical Innovation and Disease Burden Conflicting Priorities and the Social Divide in India

Striking the right balance between public health priorities and health innovation is a critical policy challenge for India given their mutually conflicting nature and interests. India has a huge burden of diseases implicated by a gamut of health problems including the uneven distribution of demographic and epidemiological transition, threat of new infectious disease pandemic like COVID 19, increasing privatisation of healthcare, low affordability to life saving medicines and most importantly the escalating healthcare expenditure coupled with poor financial risk protection. The central question that the book addresses is whether health innovation in India is sensitive to the public health needs and priorities. It unearths the overriding issues related to responsiveness and equity in India's health innovation. The book highlights the need for a responsible innovation framework for India that balances the priorities of public health and the industry goals.

Acknowledgements; List of tables and figures; Abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Health Innovation and its Institutional Co-production in India; 2. The Disease Focus of Health Research and Development; 3. Drug Development and Responsiveness to Disease Burden; 4. Affordability and the Social Divide; 5. The Puzzle of Responsive and Responsible Health Innovation; References; Index.

Sobin George teaches at the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru. His areas of research and writings cover Marginalities, Social Gradients of Health, Medical Industry and Labour Rights.