Top
MBA Colleges in Delhi NCR like Ishan Institute of Management & Technology
are consistently reinventing the academic curriculum and pedagogy for PGDM and
MBA courses by institutionalizing industry best practices where ever possible or
by inculcating them as add-ons in the form of case studies, research papers and
business research projects. The first graduate business school of Greater
Noida, Ishan Institute of Management & Technology has to this extent
integrated case studies on CSR and sustainable business models in papers of
strategic management, rural and industrial management and business ethics. An
area of academic interest that the academicians of the business school have been
pursuing off late is the development of business and revenue models that are
based on bottom of the pyramid markets and are based on people, planet and
profit. Our academic endeavours in this direction have been streamlined by the
classification of such business models into new business development, new
product development and new market development for bottom of the pyramid
people. One such very exciting piece of business news that is still a work in
progress is the involvement of Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates in the fight against cancer.
Venture Capital Investments in the
Fight against Cancer
In the
last week while participating in an off-the classroom question and answer
session with PGDM students the faculty of business administration came across a
knowledge resource from Bloomberg. It shows the spree in VC investments in the
fight against cancer along with the details of the start-up companies that are
engaging in the development of liquid biopsy for the effective diagnosis and
treatment of cancer. A summary of the information is shared here with along
with the expression of intellectual gratitude and indebtedness to Bloomberg for
sharing this information publicly.
Given
that the healthcare sector is highly dependent on research and development, it
becomes a challenge to develop a business model that has experiments as the guarantor
of the bread and butter stream. This is where the participation of angel
investors, private equity funds and mezzanine capital sources becomes critical
to the survival of these start-ups that are engaging in the development of
cutting edge technology to fight cancer. The role of VCs as investors is a
heartening sign and shows that at least corporations and corporate
philanthropists across the world care about contributing to the fight against cancer
in a way they understand best-business.
The New Product Development
Paradigm for Cancer
It
is common knowledge that cancer is an intruder that sheds bits of DNA and
spreads them across the blood stream of the human being affected. These bits of
DNA are the gold pots of knowledge that doctors and medical technologists are
betting on. Given that we have the technology for genetic sequencing; it is
possible to develop techniques of liquid biopsies that are less expensive and
less invasive in comparison to tissue samples. The objective is to develop an
all encompassing and all pervasive blood test that would examine for traces of
cancer in the blood sample of a human being long before any visible symptom and
sign of cancer becomes visible to the naked eye of the doctor. It shall be a
simple to administer blood test and this is exactly the point that VCs like
Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates are eyeing.
The Challenges and the
Opportunities
The
above stated stuff may amount to tall talk in the absence of any scorching
evidence on the time duration that it may take to develop such a blood test
based on liquid biopsy. Assuming that it may take ten years at least for the
entire cycle of experiments, consistency in results and clinical trials before
the medical community across the globe takes it seriously, it is a Himalayan
task to accomplish. Of course the fact that FIIs are participating will provide
scale to these efforts.
The
efforts though are worth the returns. The liquid biopsy offers prospects of
early detection that can save lives and initiate treatment at the earliest and thus
increase the life span of a cancer patient.
New Market Development and Current
Business Activity
The
market opportunity for the liquid biopsy super screening test that shall
examine traced of all forms of cancer may hit annual sales of USD 200 billion
in the formative years itself. As of now there are 38 companies across the
world that are selling or developing some form of liquid biopsy. The mean
pricing of the new product being developed by companies is at $1000 per test. The
head count of people who can be saved stands at 7.4 billion. Illumina’s CEO Jay
Flatey opines that the first commercial version of the liquid biopsy shall be
ready to be launched in the market worldwide by the year 2019.
Why this is Important to Top MBA
Colleges in Delhi NCR?
According
to the National Cancer Registry Programme of the Indian Council of Medical
Research more than 1300 Indians die every day due to cancer. Between the years
2012 and 2014 the mortality rate due to cancer in India increased by 6%. The
mortality rate is the highest in the North East wit most cases of cancer
belonging to the type of stomach cancer followed closely by breast and lung
cancer. At Ishan Institute of Management & Technology, the first MBA
college in Greater Nodia, Delhi NCR we aim to incorporate the latest and
cutting edge technology and business models on cancer treatment as a case study
for sustainable business development for bottom of the pyramid markets. There
are ambitious plans of extending the case study into a fully fledged business
research project on the development of cost effective and efficient solutions
to health care problems by putting them into the templates of Gandhian
engineering.
