This is your chance to make it in India

A Focus on Health in 2019:

Celebrating 10 years of close cooperation between Sweden and India

Late August brought with it a visit from the Secretary Health of the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Planning, Ms Preeti Sudan. Her presence provided the opportunity to informally inaugurate the celebrations which are to take place in 2019, marking 10 years since the signing of the MoU on Health between Sweden and India. Swecare was honored and grateful to be able to invite some of its members to a warm reception hosted by the Indian Ambassador at her Stockholm residence Thursday night.

During the speeches by Ms Sudan, Ambassador Monika Kapil Mohta, Swedish Ambassador to India Klas Molin, and Swecare CEO Maria Helling, all four emphasized the need for more deliverables from the MoU during 2019. To this end, it was suggested that we focus on one major health challenge and one geographical area. While we are eager to hear your inputs on which city in India to focus our efforts, it was pretty clear that non-communicable diseases (NCD) needs our immediate attention.

Our ongoing collaborations within anti-microbial resistance will continue of course, but more resources would be channeled into NCDs in 2019. This would encompass the fields of geriatrics, med tech, health tech, and pharmaceuticals as well as capacity building and skill training.

In order to lay the groundwork for planned activities in 2019, which will include incoming and outgoing ministerial visits, Swecare has invited a small group of Swedish life science companies to participate in a visit to Delhi in October, prior to the annual Indo-Swedish Joint Working Group in Health meeting between Socialdepartementet and the Indian Ministry of Health on October 12. From this, we plan to convene a steering committee from a select group of companies, which will be responsible for drawing up the program for the private sector activities in 2019, both in Sweden and in India.

Do get in touch with us if you want regular updates on this exciting year ahead.

If you want to seize this opportunity and come to India straightaway rather than wait for 2019, please join us at these two events:

• 5-6 October – InnoHealth 2018: Inspiring Moonshots in Healthcare
• 9-11 October – WHO’s 2nd World Conference on Access to Medical Products: Achieving the SDGs 2030