Tata Trusts & PATH join hands for India’s first ‘Impact Lab for Public Health’

New Delhi: The two big giants in the philanthropic work and vaccine development respectively, have come together to create innovative solutions for public health in India. Tata Trusts and PATH on 16th January announced the establishment of the Tata Trusts-PATH Impact Lab, the first such in India, to support and bring to market innovations for affordable public health solutions to benefit vulnerable populations with limited resources.

Among the priorities will be solutions in maternal and child health, nutrition, and diagnostics for chronic and infectious diseases.

The Impact Lab’s aim is to create and sustain an ecosystem that fosters innovation in public health and provide comprehensive support to selected innovators through product design, clinical validation, commercialization and market development to help scale high quality and affordable public health innovation products that have gone beyond the prototype stage. This support will include, amongst others, infrastructure for product development through a high end ‘tinkering shop’ located at the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, mentorship for market access and commercialisation, and launch and scale-up strategies.

PATH has worked in India since 1978, improving health and saving lives through creativity and collaboration with local partners.

“What makes the Tata Trusts-PATH Impact Lab unique is its focus on supporting the development of innovative and affordable solutions for India’s public health challenges,” said Neeraj Jain, India Country Director for PATH. “We will tap into PATH’s 40 years of global expertise in ensuring lifesaving innovations reach people who need them the most. Together with Tata Trusts, we are excited to support innovators to make in India game changing health technologies for India and the world.”

The Impact Lab will proactively source solutions, in chosen areas, with the potential to improve the healthcare of poor and resource challenged communities at scale.

“This partnership of Tata Trusts and PATH will allow innovators to leverage the strength of both the organisations in the area of public health through a world class incubation lab designed to orchestrate the ‘Lab to Market’ journey of innovations,” said Manoj Kumar, Tata Trusts’ Head of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Institutions. “Last year we created our Social Alpha architecture as part of our overall strategy to promote innovation and entrepreneurship for social impact.”

To ensure that selected innovators are enriched by relevant experience and expertise, Tata Trusts and PATH will work to establish partnerships with academia, government, philanthropic donors, incubators, technology platforms and venture funds.

PATH’s wide-ranging work has included helping to develop and deploy vaccines, partnering with Indian firms to create low-cost diagnostic tests, improving nutrition, and working with governments and stakeholders to control and treat tuberculosis and encephalitis. PATH’s current role in India focuses on bringing technical know-how for improving health to communities across the country—working alongside local companies, nongovernmental organizations, and public-sector partners.

Celebrating its 125th anniversary this year, Tata Trusts is amongst India’s oldest, non-sectarian philanthropic organisations that work in several areas of community development. Since its inception, Tata Trusts has played a pioneering role in transforming traditional ideas of philanthropy to make impactful sustainable change in the lives of the communities served.