Apollo Hospitals explore partnerships in Bahrain

India's Apollo Hospitals is exploring partnership opportunities in the super-specialty sector of the healthcare industry in Bahrain, a top official of the company has said.

"Bahrain has world-class quality of healthcare. However, there are medical disciplines where Apollo has proven expertise in innovative therapies and that is where we feel we can collaborate," the company's executive Vice-Chairperson Shobana Kamineni said.

The Chennai-based healthcare major currently has more than 10,000 beds across 51 hospitals, more than 1,500 pharmacies, over 100 primary care and diagnostic clinics and 115 telemedicine units across nine countries.

"Our hospitals are multi-specialty tertiary care facilities with centres of excellence in disciplines including cardiology, cardio-thoracic surgery, gastroenterology, orthopaedics and joint replacement surgery, neurology, critical care medicine, nephrology, oncology, hand and micro-surgery and reproductive medicine," Kamineni told the Gulf Daily News.

Meanwhile, Cadila Pharmaceuticals, a Gujarat-based major manufacturer of generic drugs, is also looking to start manufacturing in the region.

"We are scouting for partners with strong local presence and credentials in the industry or allied activities," Cadila Chairman and Managing Director Dr Rajiv Modi told the newspaper.

"Indian pharma considers the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) a high growth market because the governments here are opting for increased generic substitution. There is a large demographic with high purchasing power and an increase in the burden of lifestyle diseases," Dr Modi was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

On the sidelines of the 'Diaspora Engagement Meet' held in the Gulf country, Modi said the company was not only keen to sell its pharmaceutical product basket in Bahrain but also start manufacturing in the region.

The company has already got approvals from Gulf Central Committee for Drug Registrations for many of its drugs.

He said Bahrain, with its competitive cost and ease of doing business advantages, was at the top of his list of locations where a plant could be set up.

India is believed to be the third-largest exporter of active pharmaceutical ingredients and exports are expected to amount to $25 billion by the end of the year.

The 'Diaspora Engagement Meet' was organized by Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre (OIFC) in Manama and was inaugurated by Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj.