Indian e-health sector projected to grow by 13x to $16 bn by 2025: Report

The Indian e-health sector is expected to become a $16 billion opportunity by FY 2025, growing from $1.2 billion, at a compound annual growth rate of 68 per cent, according to a report by research firm RedSeer Consulting.

This growth will be driven by increasing consumer receptiveness towards eHealth models and rising provider and supplier willingness to partner with eHealth platforms. This is further supported by an increased influx of investments and pro-eHealth regulations.

Anil Kumar, founder and CEO of RedSeer said Indian consumers face a host of challenges in the traditional healthcare system – be it the availability of specialists or medicines at a nearby pharmacy or long waiting times to get diagnostic tests done. 

“We believe e-Health platforms have a strong potential in changing the experience of the Indian consumer across the entire spectrum of outpatient services, across doctor consultation, diagnostics and pharmacy,” said Kumar. “Over the next 5 years, we project the e-Health market to exponentially grow to a $16 billion-market touching 57 million households, driven by positive reception from both consumers and providers along with supportive government regulations and investments,” he added.

As per RedSeer, the overall Indian healthcare industry is set to grow at 17 per cent CAGR until FY 2025 to reach $353 billion (7 per cent of the expected nominal gross domestic product). The firm prepared the report based on the insights from over 1200 consumers about their ‘eHealth’ experience. The report said the consumers significantly value the benefits of eHealth over the traditional outpatient care system across pharmacy, consultation and diagnostics categories.

One such e-health company is Medlife which is delivering medicines to over 25,000 pin codes and diagnostics in more than 400 towns across the country.

“Medlife is poised to end this year with a GMV (gross merchandise value) run rate of $220 million. We believe E-health and not just e-pharmacy is the mantra for this sector,” said Ananth Narayanan, CEO and co-founder of e-health company Medlife. “Our lab diagnostic business scale-up, expansion of our private label portfolio and the e-consultation platform will allow us to achieve stellar growth from these additional areas. We target to be over a $2 billion player by 2024,” said Narayanan.

He said one of the biggest challenges for the sector are the fringe players who do not follow the laws and rules properly and cause a wrong perception of the industry as a whole.  “We are eagerly awaiting the legislation on e-pharmacy to continue scaling the business. We believe that technology is key to provide access and affordability in healthcare. We are committed to making this happen,” said Narayanan.