Archana Shanker and Devinder Singh Rawat discuss the interaction between the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries in India, especially on aspects related to advertising, pricing and regulatory, prefaced on the overarching goal of protecting public health.
Healthcare is a state responsibility according to the Constitution of India (Article 42, ‘Provision for just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief’ and Article 47, ‘Duty of the State to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living and to improve public health’).
Each state has its own healthcare delivery system in which both public and private (for-profit as well as non-profit) parties operate. While states are responsible for the functioning of their respective healthcare systems, certain responsibilities also fall to the central government, namely aspects of policy-making, planning, guiding, assisting, evaluating and coordinating the work of the various provincial health authorities, and providing funding to implement national programmes.
This chapter was published in Getting the Deal Through: Life Sciences 2017.