#ICYMI: Be sure not to miss out next time

Incredible India. Thirteen Swedish health care representative traveled to India last week - in addition to the 17-person tech delegation arranged by SIBC to Bangalore, so Swedish presence was particularly high on the sub-continent - in order to begin preparations for increased collaborations during our Jubilee year 2019. With three separate tracks focused on regional collaborations, partnerships in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, and private sector opportunities, the agenda for these Mini Delegations was incredibly packed.

The delegation trip itself would not have come about without the close collaboration between Swecare Foundation, Socialdepartementet, and the Embassy of Sweden in New Delhi as well as InnovatioCuris. The visibility and credibility of the delegation increase significantly when we work towards a common goal while planning these visits.

Program Overview - Track 1

The Swecare trip started with InnoHealth2018, organized by our Central Baltic Health Access partners InnovatioCuris and led by Target Market Coach, Sachin Gaur. The Swedish Ambassador to India, the inimitable Klas Molin, opened the two-day conference in Gurugram with a passionate plea to delegates to innovate together, across borders, towards a common goal. The conference's strength in fact lies attracting those who are willing to put in the time, resources, and skills to do exactly that and the B2B sessions are unparalleled in their focus on action points. Special attention was given to affordable and simple solutions, especially with regards to management of chronic disease.


The following week included study visits to Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi, and Max Hospital Saket where the delegation had the honor of touring radiology, oncology, and infection control units at the leading hospitals in the country. The warm welcome we received touched the delegation and we hope to return the favor when these counterparts visit Sweden.


We also had very high-level access to two leading diagnostic brands in Delhi.
Dr Lal's National Reference Laboratory has arguably the most extensive network across India and we got to visit their state-of-the-art flagship center in Rohini. Dr Lal himself received our small delegation. This was followed up by a visit to the more specialized Mahajan Imaging where we had an intimate dialogue about premium Indian market, AI, and quality assurance.

After constructive discussions with a large team at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) cutting across a vast range of subjects from nursing to eHealth, we ended the day with a roundtable among Swedish life science companies in India, hosted by the Swedish Chamber and Business Sweden, and a reception at the Ambassador's Residence. 

Program Overview - Track 2

Socialdepartments trip started with WHO's 2nd World Conference on Access to Medical Products - Achieving the SDGs 2030, where we met the leadership at the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare during the inauguration. Niclas Jacobson, Socialdepartementet, spoke on Sweden's commitment to these issues and Pavan Aslapuram, EMPE Diagnostics, presented the case for Swedish colloborative structures.

The first day ended with a Team Sweden dinner hosted by our Ministry, where we got a chance to realign our objectives for the week and the year ahead.

Representatives from Socialdepartementet, Embassy of Sweden - Economic Affairs, Swecare, eHälsomyndigheten, Business Sweden, and Forte traveled to Jodhpur on the second day, along with Joint Secretary Sunil Sharma, to conduct a site visit to the AIIMS Jodhpur. The group were treated to dinner by the Indian Ministry at the foot of the Jodhpur Fort. A visit was also made to two Health and Wellness Centers which Sweden plans to 'adopt' in order to test, and eventually showcase, Swedish solutions in the Indian context. We were very happy to see Elekta, Sectra, and Hemocue products already in use in Jodhpur.

The delegation returned to Delhi to join the others at the Roundtable and Reception at the Embassy. And with this renewed energy and commitment, we entered into what was to be one of the most productive Joint Working Group meeting in this MoU's history on the morning of the last day.

Program Overview - Track 3

Representatives from Läkemedelverket and Folkhälsomyndigheten stayed back in Delhi in order to present at the WHO conference and meet with CDSCO and Safdarjung Hospital respectively. They rejoined the larger group for the Roundtable, Reception, and JWG meeting. The entire trip was rounded off by a Team Sweden meeting at the Embassy in order to debrief and delegate immediate action points.

Most common issues raised

• Nurse Training
• Doctor Exchange
• Clinical Decision Support (AI)
• Early Screening
• Elderly Care
• AMR / Environmental Impact

Participants

Much of the reason for the success of this delegation trip rests with the participants - a dedicated set of smart, funny, and flexible individuals. Thank you for coming!

• Karolinska University Hospital
• Getinge
• Aleris
• DocOnline
• eHealth Agency
• Public Health Agency
• Medical Products Agency
• FORTE
• Socialdepartmentet
• Swecare Foundation

Special Mention

• Embassy of India in Sweden
• EMPE Diagnostics
• Gothenburg Business Region
• AstraZeneca
• Sweden-India Business Council
• Swedish Chamber of Commerce in India (SCCI)
• Business Sweden
• Vinnova

For those interested in India - come check-out India-Sweden Business Day

Central Baltic Health Access trip to India - Sept 2017

Key takeaways

1. You have to be excited to be there. If being in India does not make you happy then it will be very hard to motivate yourself and your team to invest time and money necessary to succeed in the Indian market. Two of the participants woke up at 2am to visit the Taj Mahal from Delhi (+3hrs one-way by car) before their 11am meetings with agencies and distributors. This passion speaks for itself, and the Indian counterparts are much more likely to go an extra mile (in this case quite literally) if you show that you are doing so yourself.

2. A physical presence is extremely important. Most people will actually want to meet you first and then take it from there. If, in the Swedish manner, you try to book meeting weeks in advance with a set agenda, the response is unlikely to be overwhelming. One of our Swedish delegates was so concerned with what she saw as a lack of planning that she "almost didn't come, [...] but there were so many good meetings that were unprepared!" She booked her ticket days before this CBHA trip and was not disappointed.

3. When your extremely talented and dedicated local coach tells you to take an Indian SIM card, listen to him. I regretted not having taken an old phone with me as many of my texts did not go through and data connectivity was patchy at best. There was no WiFi at the conference venue which made it difficult to follow-up and set-up meetings with the leads one had just met, an Indian number would have made life much easier.

4. Use Whatsapp - one of the representatives of a government regulatory body said that he is unlikely to ever answer an email as he is constantly running between meetings and stuck in traffic (many official domains are inaccessible on the mobile). Get potential partners' mobile numbers and use them.

About the trip

The third installment of the Central Baltic Health Access project consisted of three days in Delhi and two days in Bengaluru over the third week in September. The sheer variety of meetings we managed to fit into these few days is nothing short of impressive. For this we have Sachin Gaur and his team at InnovatioCuris to thank. I believe I speak for all participants - six from Sweden, five from Estonia, and four from Finland - when I say that it was a productive trip. Company mission reviews have started to come in and we will book in coaching meetings over the next few weeks in order to ensure follow-up, but the general feeling, even after two days in Delhi, was that many promising connections have been made - with distributors, clinics, hospitals, start-ups, research institutes, regulatory agencies.

We were also privileged to have hands-on support from both the Estonian and Swedish Embassies in Delhi. The Ambassadors spent a considerable amount of time with the companies, in order to understand the needs, challenges, and expectations of each representative. This type of local support is key for success in foreign markets. In fact Swecare is already in talks with the Embassy, Business Sweden, InnovatioCuris, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) to explore the option of making this type of business-focused trips a regular event. If you are interested in this form of deep engagement, do let us know!

Participants:

Representative name	Organization
Dr. Jaanus Pikani	Documental, Estonia
Ms. Piia Vettik-Leemet	Tartu Biotechnology Park, Estonia
Mr. Jan Erik Hedborg	ApiRays, Sweden
Mr. Priit Aigro	Smart Do, Estonia
Ms. Maarika Merirand	Tehnopol, Estonia
Dr. Pieter Spee	Fibrotx, Estonia
Ms. Malin Hollmark	Swedish Medtech, Sweden
Ms. Shampa Bari	Swecare, Sweden
Mr. Hakan Jideus	Predicare, Sweden
Mr. Pavan Asalapuram	Empe diagnostics, Sweden
Ms. Caroline Danielson	RenaPharma, Sweden
Mr. Joonas Ihalainen	iCare, Finland
Mr. Tero Karhi	Turku Science Park, Finland
Dr. Katja Heikkinen	Turku AMK, Finland
Ms. Marjatta Häsänen	Turku AMK, Finland

Food for thought

Before signing off, I leave you with some few points I have pondering over since the trip.

- If the diagnostic test costs more than the 'cure,' often antibiotics, wouldn't you too just take the latter?

- How to tackle the aging challenge, which the Indian healthcare system is only now coming to see as a threat?

- Can our products be price-competitive when there is such heavy tax imposed on imports into India? Is manufacturing there a viable option?

- When it comes to product tests, must the companies fund the research themselves, or are there easily available funds in Sweden? The Indian research agencies have such funds for the work being done on their end but cannot finance the Swedish engagement, making the PPP project less tenable.