i2iHealth has recently announced plans to significantly expand the availability of its lung care device in India. This innovative, FDA-approved medical device provides relief to chronic diseases such as chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pulmonary tuberculosis (TB), asthma, fibrosis, pneumonia and other chronic respiratory ailments. It also provides significant relief and quality-of-life benefits to long-term smokers suffering from congestion and has proven very successful across India. This medical device is ideal for Indian patients as it is simple-to-use, low-cost and drug-free (no side effects). Deepam Mishra, CEO, i2iHealth tells M Neelam Kachhap about the device and the company’s expansion plans
What is the size of market you are targeting with lung-flute device?
| Deepam Mishra |
While the volume of patients in our target market is very high – about 20 million – the real markets in India are significantly smaller due to widespread distribution and income limitations. Our target market includes patients suffering from compromised secretion clearance and increased secrete production. These also include people having poor secretion mobilisation such as COPD, asthma, cystic fibrosis, bronchiectasis, airways inflammation etc. The impact of TB and COPD is very high in India and the former is now considered of epidemic proportions.
What are your investments in this device so far?
We do not share specific investment details in these companies – primarily for strategic reasons and partly because our investments go much beyond financials. We use our global networks for procuring technology, leverage our Clinical Advisory Group for clinical validation, and spend a significant amount of our core management time in mentoring and managing these start-ups. We typically invest between $50000 to $500000 per project, often over two rounds.
What is your target for the sales of the product this year?
We do not provide specific numbers of sales. We have sales in over 20 locations so far across the country.
We plan to expand our footprint to another 20 odd locations as well as to expand sales in existing territories.
We are being approached by distributors of conventional pulmonary-care equipment, for product bundling and collaborative sales.
How are your product different from the current products available in the market?
Lungflute is a unique product which works on low frequency sound waves to clear the deep seated sputum. Other products in market are air pressure based products which can clear sputum only from the upper part of the bronco-tracheal system. These products are expensive in comparison to Lungflute and require more effort by the patient to operate these devices.
How would you address the price point issue as India is demanding less expensive diagnostics?
Lungflute is already in the affordable category of devices. A single device lasts a lifetime and does not include any costly components or maintenance. The price will further reduce as the sales volume increases.
Are you are looking to expand your presence in India. Please elaborate?
We have reached almost all the metros in India, and few tier II cities through a wide distribution network. We are planning further business expansion in other tier II cities through the distributor and sub distributor channels. We also see significant benefits to smokers who have difficulty with sleeping or breathing. We are exploring channels to sell our product directly to them.
Kindly comment on the lung disease in India?
In India, the incidence and growth rate of lung disease is very high. Pollution, TB and low-quality-tobacco smoking are some of the greatest challenges. Even by known estimates (which we think are low) the size of the market is over 20 million. What is worse is that COPD has no cure and can only be arrested or slowed down. Improved pulmonary hygiene is a natural and low-cost solution that can help the fight against lung disease. Our products are specifically designed for the same.
Would you be launching any new product soon?
We are developing technologies and business plans in the areas of chronic-disease management and cancer-screening. Both these areas have large unmet need, both in diagnostics and management. In fact, we are looking for interested entrepreneurs with relevant commercial experience to help launch these companies.
What are your future plans?
We are interested in developing low-cost solutions that can be used outside hospitals and large clinics – ideally in a primary care facility. We are looking at solutions which can bring a larger population under higher quality care through simple solutions that allow diagnosis and therapeutics at a location closer to the customer.