UNHIE, BIRAC & Social Alpha announce ‘India Accelerator Platform for Healthcare Innovations’

New Delhi: A unique programme for health innovations has been announced by United Nation’s Health Innovation Exchange (UNHIE), Biotechnology Industry  Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) and Social Alpha.

Conceived as the India Accelerator Platform, it aspires to unlock the potential of the Indian Medical Technologies (MedTech) and Digital Health innovations through successful adoption of 100 Indian innovations in the next five years. The accelerator is estimated to result in the opening of market access and procurement of Medical Devices and Diagnostics and Digital Health solutions worth $500 million from Indian Start-Ups during the same period.

These efforts are in line with the Government of India’s vision to provide Deep Technology Innovations that are ideated, conceptualized and manufactured in India. This accelerator will be an Open Platform and key stakeholders from public and private sector, multilateral agencies and foundations will be invited to join the platform.

Mr Pradeep Kakkattil, Director of Innovations, UNAIDS and Head – UNHIE said, “Leveraging innovation is essential to fast tracking progress to Universal Health Coverage and SDG3 targets. India’s innovation ecosystem has the potential to transform access to health – from pharma to diagnostics to digital health. The UNAIDS Health Innovation Exchange (UNHIE) was set up by the UN to facilitate acceleration and adoption of technologies and innovation for health and to make them available across countries. We are very excited to partner with BIRAC and Social Alpha to establish the UNHIE-BIRAC India Accelerator platform and I am confident that it will be transformative in the global journey to UHC.”

UNHIE is a platform to identify challenges faced by implementers and connect them with innovations that have high potential for impact. The platform links with investors to scale up the efforts and develop sustainable solutions to bridge the disconnect that exists between innovators and implementers to fast-track progress to reach Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and other health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

Dr Renu Swarup, Secretary DBT & Chairperson, BIRAC said – India, with its rapidly growing start-up ecosystem, technology strength and government’s commitment to universal health coverage, is the best test bed and offers the right ecosystem for scaling disruptive healthcare innovations. BIRAC has significantly enhanced the capabilities of the Indian startup ecosystem by supporting a number of healthcare innovations and UNHIE-BIRAC India Accelerator will further enhance the adoption potential of health innovations. We congratulate UNAIDS and Social Alpha for joining hands with BIRAC in this ambitious initiative.