Innovative Partnership To Increase Breast Cancer Care Survival Rates In India

Tech Care for All’s partner KOIS is seeking companies, foundations, impact investors and international agencies to join a bold new initiative to transform India’s cancer care through innovative finance.

KOIS, in collaboration with Tata Memorial Hospital and Roche, and with the guidance of the United Nations’ Defeat–NCD Partnership, is structuring an ambitious Development Impact Bond (DIB) to improve breast cancer outcomes for 5 million Indian women and create proof of concept for a sustainable cancer care model for India.  Kois, an international impact finance firm based in Brussels and Mumbai, specializes in structuring innovative financing products such as impact bonds.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in India, accounting for one-fourth of all cancer cases in women and killing about 90,000 women every year. Worse, breast cancer exerts a disproportionate burden on India’s young population, with huge economic consequences.  One of every 5 young women dying of breast cancer globally is from India. The economic losses from these early and preventable deaths will reach $4 billion over the next decade alone.

The proportion of health spending that comes out of pocket in India, at 65%, is much higher than in most other countries. Indeed, financial hardship is a major reason women discontinue their care and become lost to follow-up.

Based on extensive research with 22 major hospitals, the DIB investors believe well-targeted interventions—to  diagnose women earlier, improve quality of care and increase patients’ financial access to treatment—can deliver better care to 67,000 patients over five years and increase survival rates by as much as 40 percent.  The initiative is kicking off in 9 of India’s largest public sector cancer care hospitals, including Tata Memorial Hospital, PGI Hospital and the Adyar Cancer Institute.

Companies in the diagnostic and device space are especially encouraged to consider this strategic opportunity to save women’s lives across India. To learn more, contact Pam Bolton at [email protected] or Prabu Thiruppathy at [email protected].