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Pharmaceutical growth versus health equity in India: when markets fail

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Abstract

Aim

To reveal inequity in health in India.

Subject and methods

The global paradigm of the knowledge economy propounds that growth and equity will occur if there is a free-market economy without state intervention and if patents are provided as incentives for innovation. In this paper, we explore the veracity of this thesis by investigating growth in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors in India, and by looking at equity issues through the lens of gender health and health costs for poor consumers. We used data from current publications to support this thesis.

Results

We found that growth has been characterized by multiple handicaps and oligopoly, with the nature of expansion not having relevance for the disease profiles in India. The scenario of gender health and health costs of the poor is grim due to state retrenchment and neglect of the provision of public good, such as in health matters.

Conclusion

One can conclude that equity has not occurred under a growing pharmaceutical sector. This finding has huge implications for public policy in India and other emerging nations.

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Funding

This study was not funded by any entity.

Author-identifying information appears on the title page that is separate from the manuscript.

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Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pallab Paul.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Mukhopadhyay, K., Paul, P. Pharmaceutical growth versus health equity in India: when markets fail. J Public Health (Berl.) 27, 473–489 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-018-0969-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-018-0969-6

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