Indian Healthcare sector to grow 3-fold by 2022: Assocham

New Delhi, December 3: The Indian healthcare sector will witness a threefold rise to reach $372 billion by 2022 from $110 billion as of 2016. Also, a compounded annual growth rate of 22% will also be achieved. Factors like growing geriatric population, uptick in medical tourism and gradual decline in the cost of medical services will drive medical devices market in the nation, industry chamber Assocham said.

"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 Over-view" 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 percent.

Imports, however, make up about 75 percent of Indian medical devices market, according to the study. It said generic drugs account for about 70 percent 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 minimizing 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.