Companies rely more on digital platforms for diabetes care: GlobalData.

Pharma and health tech companies in India are increasingly using digital platforms to provide personalized support to people with diabetes and diabetes care programs in the country, says the country’s leading data and analytics company GlobalData.

Diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions over the last three decades, and India continues to be home to the second-largest number of adults with diabetes worldwide, after China. The rise is primarily due to bad lifestyle choices as Indian culture encourages people to eat sweets and other food full of calories and fats. Lifestyle management is a critical step for improving patient outcomes and metabolic parameters associated with the disease.

People with diabetes are also suspectable of other health problems like obesity, heart diseases, blood pressure problems, metabolism problems, etc. Making desirable changes in one’s diet in consultation with a physician and having regular cardio-vascular exercise can go a long way in managing or avoiding this disease.

According to GlobalData’s ‘Pharmaceutical Intelligence Center,’ diagnosed prevalent cases of type 2 diabetes in India are estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 3.97%, from 76.2 million in 2021 to 91.7 million in 2028. With some disciplined lifestyle changes, it is possible to reduce the number of such cases.

Neha Myneni comments: “Improving aspects of lifestyle, such as diet and exercise, is a key part of diabetes control. Many people living with diabetes can struggle to manage this effectively and need extended support and guidance.” She is the pharma analyst at GlobalData.

Various pharmaceutical companies and health tech companies are currently offering personalized support through various digital diabetes care programs in India. Key pharma companies in India’s diabetes-related market, such as Novo Nordisk, Sanofi, AstraZeneca, Roche, Abbott, and Cipla, also offer support through tailor-made diabetes care programs. These programs are leveraging digital solutions to provide care to people with diabetes.

According to GlobalData’s ‘Digital Marketing Intelligence,’ these diabetes care programs are also supported through websites like Sanofi’s Saath7psp.com and Into life. In; AstraZeneca’s Beyondsugar. in and Novo Nordisk’s Cdicindia.org, and Cipla/Wellthy’s Wellthy Care app. Sanofi’s Saath 7 is one of the industry’s longest-running patient support programs for diabetes patients in India.

Besides, Abbott’s FreeStyle Libre Roche’s Diabefly and GOQii Smart Vital Plus device with Accu-Chek is supported by intelligent devices. GOQii’s diabetes care program is the most recent entrant in the category and is an integrated lifestyle medicine for diabetes patients in India. It offers a holistic package of solutions to help people with diabetes.

Key features of these various programs include counseling in terms of disease and lifestyle management, treatment support (insulin administration), and personalized coaching. These solutions will grow more powerful as the internet penetration continues to increase in the country and more and more people have access to the same through smartphones. The cheap mobile data charges are another thing that is helping improve the access of people to these solutions. The Digital India campaign of 2015 and the lockdowns and social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic have also helped make this digital solution popular among people.

“Since the Digital India campaign launch in 2015, the country has quickly adopted digital services across various sectors, with healthcare being no exception. With increasing access to the internet and more people looking for digital healthcare support in the current pandemic scenario, improved focus on digital health services for chronic conditions such as diabetes is expected to improve the standard of care further in the near future.” Myneni concluded.

Having successfully accomplished the biggest vaccination drive against COVID-19, the country must turn its attention to fighting this health disaster.