HealthCare Global Enterprises gets Rs 50 cr private equity

Bangalore, July 12 (UNI) Embarking on a major Rs 300 crore expansion programme, the city-based HealthCare Global Enterprises (HCG) has received a Rs 50 crore private equity funding from IDFC Private Equity to enhance the capacity of the Bangalore Institute of Oncology (BIO) and set up 13 new centres across the country.

HCG Chairman and Promotor Dr Ajai Kumar told newspersons here that in the first phase, covering the next five years, Rs 150 crore would be spent on making BIO a major centre for cancer treatment in the country.

He said two Centres of Excellence, one at BIO and another in New Delhi, would be set up for oncology, besides setting up a central reference laboratory and clinical trials management centre here.

Dr Kumar said 13 new centres for cancer treatment would be set up at various locations, including Erode in Tamil Nadu and Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh. Under the expansion plan, a PET-CT centre and a GMP Radiopharmaceutical unit would also be set up at a cost of Rs 20 crore.

He said cancer incidence in India, currently estimated at one million new cases per year, had doubled over the last three decades.

An estimated three million patients were undergoing treatment for cancer in the country. Demographic and socio-economic factors, increasing life expectancy, growing tobacco consumption, pollution and changing diet have been associated with the increasing incidence of cancer.

Dr Kumar said HCG would also take up clinical trials outsourcing for various drug companies. Currently, over 500 drugs were being developed for cancer treatment and around five of them would be from India. The country offered a good environment for conducting such contract research and HCG hoped to earn a significant revenue from these trials so that subsidised treatment could be provided.

The cost of oncology treatment in India was five to 20 times less compared to the developed world, depending on the nature of treatment, he added.

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