Novartis ‘social business’ model for rural India wins recognition
Arogya Parivar, an innovative outreach by Novartis India to rural regions of the world's second most populous nation, has received a prestigious award for "Best long-term rural marketing initiative" from the Rural Marketing Association of India (RMAI). The majority of India's 1.1 billion people live in rural areas.
Anuj Pasrija, Country Head Arogya (second left), receives the RMAI award
The award recognizes Arogya Parivar for its long-term impact and development of a brand with a set of measurable objectives. Novartis India competed for the award with global and national companies from a cross-section of industries including banking and insurance, automobiles, personal care products, oil and steel.
A social business model aims at longevity and scalability
To address the needs of rural India, where healthcare is a difficult challenge, Sandoz and Consumer Health began piloting a social business model in 2006. Besides a lack of healthcare infrastructure, villagers often remain undiagnosed because they are not aware of the symptoms of diseases. In addition, rural residents frequently delay visiting a doctor unless a disease becomes critical, due to the cost and time involved.
The Novartis team addressed these challenges using an innovative direct approach to make villagers aware of prevalent diseases and encourage them to seek treatment. By late 2006, the Arogya Parivar initiative was launched as a pilot program in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and the western state of Maharashtra.
The initiative aims to build a sustainable, profitable business that improves access to healthcare among the underserved millions in rural India by creating awareness, enhancing local availability, and designing appealing and affordable health solutions. This social business approach represents a mix of corporate citizenship and creative entrepreneurship.
After a successful pilot phase, Arogya Parivar had broadened its reach by the end of 2008 to a population of around 25 million villagers across seven states. The objective is to double it by 2010.
Field force and product lines adapt to rural needs
Novartis India has adapted its organization and product offering to the rural markets. Arogya Parivar follows a decentralized model where the field force is in autonomous cells (170 cells by year-end 2008). Each cell has health educators and supervisors who collaborate with local health professionals, pharmacy chains and NGOs to address the whole "patient flow," including education, diagnosis, treatment, delivery, and availability and accessibility of medicines.
A key differentiator is offering patients integrated solutions to health problems rather than mainly selling products to health professionals. Products selected for the initiative are simple to use and packages are reduced in size to keep out-of-pocket costs low.
During the pilot phase, Arogya Parivar focused on diseases where Novartis could offer solutions with Sandoz and OTC products. These included tuberculosis and other respiratory infections, cough, cold, allergies, skin and genital infections, mother and child malnutrition, diabetes, intestinal worms and digestive problems - important challenges in rural communities.
Recently, two cells in the central state of Madhya Pradesh have piloted solutions from the Novartis Pharma division for locally prevalent diseases. The basket of products also has been expanded to include products from partner firms, covering additional therapeutic areas and needs such as anti-malarial bed nets.