Apollo Hospitals and Sanofi will collaborate on the expansion of Apollo Sugar Clinics, which provide integrated diabetes care programmes in India. Through this collaboration, Apollo and Sanofi plan to leverage their respective expertise in diabetes to provide patients with access to comprehensive educational resources, treatment and care programs that can help patients better manage their diabetes.
The first wave of this collaboration will focus on the establishment of 50 Apollo Sugar. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are responsible for more than 36 million deaths each year with close to 80 per cent of them being recorded in low and middle income countries [i]. Further, the economic burden of NCDs in India is estimated to be greater than $6 trillion, for the period 2012-2030[ii]. Diabetes, a prominent NCD, has afflicted close to 382 million people globally with India alone accounting for over 65 million people with diabetes[iii] and 77.2 million people diagnosed as being pre-diabetic[iv]. The number of people with diabetes in India is expected to rise to 109 million by 2035[iii].
In line with concentrated efforts towards controlling the burgeoning diabetes epidemic – both globally and in India, the Apollo Sugar Clinics endeavour is to make diabetes ‘disease-free’ by offering easy access to an integrated diabetes care solution within a clinical infrastructure, which promotes early detection and treatment of diabetes and associated complications, strengthened by lifestyle management and behaviour change programmes. All these together can lead to better compliance with necessary treatments and potentially lead to better patient outcomes.
Commenting on the collaboration, Dr Prathap Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group shared “Over the years, Apollo Hospitals has benchmarked global best practices in quality healthcare delivery with stringent alignment to approved standards and protocols. With the increasing burden of diabetes in our society, we need to act quickly and with a sense of purpose to arrest the disease from claiming more lives. I am confident that through Apollo Sugar Clinics we will be able to offer patients advanced care and counselling that will help them better manage their condition. This is a good start towards improving the diabetes infrastructure in India and I am delighted to be partnering with Sanofi, a global leader in diabetes management. Our shared vision will shape a new approach to diabetes care that can benefit patients in India and other parts of the world.”
“Sanofi has a heritage of nearly 100 years in developing treatments for diabetes and understands the impact that local expertise and innovative care models can have for patients who are managing their diabetes,” said Christopher A Viehbacher, Chief Executive Officer, Sanofi. “By joining together to expand the Apollo Sugar Clinics, Sanofi and Apollo are demonstrating our commitment to delivering a superior patient experience that offers support at various stages of the diabetes care journey and aims to reduce the burden of diabetes.”
EH News Bureau
References
[i] http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs355/en/ accessed on 24.09.2014
[ii] The Economic Impact of Non-communicable Disease in China and India: Estimates, Projections, and Comparisons by Department of Global
Health and Population, Harvard School of Public Health
[iii] International Diabetes Federation. IDF Diabetes Atlas, 6th edn. Brussels, Belgium: International Diabetes Federation, 2013.
http://www.idf.org/diabetesatlas
[iv] Anjana RM, et al. Prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes (impaired fasting glucose and/or impaired glucose tolerance) in urban and rural India: phase I results of the Indian Council of Medical Research-INdiaDIABetes (ICMR-INDIAB) study. Diabetologia. 2011 Dec;54(12):3022-7.
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