Indian healthcare may grow threefold to $372 billion by 2022: Assocham

The Indian healthcare market is likely to reach $372 billion by 2022 in a threefold growth in value terms, industry chamber Assocham said on Sunday, citing its latest study on the subject.

"India`s healthcare market may see threefold rise as its size in value terms is likely to reach $372 billion by 2022 from the level of $110 bn as of 2016, thereby clocking a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22 per cent," an Assocham release said here, citing the Assocham-RNCOS joint paper.

"Growing lifestyle diseases, rising demand for affordable healthcare due to increasing healthcare costs, technological advancements, emergence of telemedicine, rapid health insurance penetration, mergers and acquisitions helping to reach untapped markets and government initiatives like tax benefits, incentives and a host of regulatory policies are driving the healthcare market in India," the study said.

The paper "Indian Healthcare Sector- An Overview" said that factors like growing geriatric population, uptick in medical tourism and gradual decline in cost of medical services will drive the domestic medical devices market, which was valued at $4 billion in 2016 and is likely to cross the $11 billion mark by 2022, registering a CAGR of 15 per cent.

Imports, however, make up about 75 per cent of Indian medical devices market, according to the study.

It said generic drugs account for about 70 per cent of the $20 billion worth Indian pharmaceutical market.

"Increasing expenditure on research and development (R&D), rising collaborations between Indian and foreign companies, reduction in product approval time and other such factors are driving the growth of Indian pharmaceutical market," the study said.

It also noted that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will have a positive impact on the Indian healthcare market, particularly on the pharmaceutical sector.

"GST would not only streamline taxation structure but lead to ease of doing business by minimising cascading effect of many taxes applied to a product, rationalise supply chain, enable flow of seamless tax credit, lower manufacturing cost, reduce cost of technology and make healthcare affordable," it said.

According to Assocham, the Indian pharmaceutical market is third largest globally in terms of volume and 13th largest in terms of value.