Country: India

Organization: Indian Immunologicals Limited

Focus of activity - Service/process

Year the initiative began (yyyy) - 2000

Define the innovation - What is the main focus (product, services, etc) of your innovation? Who are the primary beneficiaries? How does it make health and/or health care more affordable, accessible, and simpler to achieve/use? How does it differ from what currently exists in the market? Human Biologicals Institute(HBI) is a div. of Indian Immunologicals Ltd(IIL),a Wholly Owned subsidiary of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB).HBI manufactures & markets vaccines & biologicals for human use with mission of Immunity made affordable.In India vaccination is carried out in 2-folds,first being National Immunization Program where vaccines are given to patients free of cost through Govt. hosp.Here quality of vaccine & cool chain is never a priority.In case of rabies treatment the age old Nerve tissue vaccine were dispensed to patients’ inspite of severe side effects.Second being the private practitioners who dispense multi national brands at higher cost to a minor population of the elite society.Abhay Clinic concept was brought to bridge the gap & provide affordable immunity through technologically superior biologicals. With this objective HBI launched its first product AntiRabiesVaccine–Abhayrab in 2000.Abhayrab is the first PurifiedVeroCellRabiesVaccine manufactured indigenously in India.HBI entered into ARV market because, India accounts for 70% rabies cases world over.The need was to bring less expensive modern Tissue culture vaccine.HBI launched Operation Abhay, meaning protection & freedom from fear.Under Operation Abhay we appointed qualified doctors as our partners, who will dispense our vaccine at not only affordable cost but will also ensure cold chain maintenance of our vaccine.Abhay Clinics were set up across the country,mostly to reach the people of rural India who were actually in need.Other manufacturers follow the conventional distribution channel of stockiest-distributor-retailer due to which cost of the product to the patients increases.Moreover cold chain maintenance takes a back seat.Cost benefit to the patients is possible through Abhay Clinics as the stocks are supplied directly to the Abhay Clinics doctors by courier service with a guaranteed delivery of 24 hrs and thereby avoiding the entire chain of middle men.

Context for Disruption: - Describe how your innovation is transforming traditional health or related systems in the short and long term. In Govt. supply the availability is irregular. Moreover only certain section of the population is catered by the State run hospitals. There is also a concern on the quality & storage of the vaccines. Public generally approach Govt. hospitals as the vaccines are available free of cost. Private practitioners charge premium price for dispensing vaccines & consultation. At Abhay Clinics vaccines are dispensed at an affordable price by a qualified doctor. These vaccines are kept under proper cool chain. The quality vaccines are maintained under strict Cold Chain Management as we have provided the cold chain infrastructure to the Abhay Clinic doctors. The Abhay Clinic doctor also disseminates scientific information about the disease & its prevention to the patient. The doctor who joins AbhayClinic movement has an urge to provide service to the community rather than earn profits. In a span of 4 yrs, Abhay Clinics have emerged as Centre for complete dog bite treatment in India. Today because of our sincere efforts & massive awareness campaigns, we enjoy a regular inflow of patients to Abhay Clinic referred by Govt. hospitals as well as it has also become a referral centre for the private practitioners.In long term, we aspire to strengthen our Abhay Clinic network by setting up new Abhay Clinics to bring the entire population under our coverage. We are already in the process of strengthening our product portfolio so that the complete vaccination schedule as per IAP guidelines can happen at each & every Abhay Clinics and thus justifying Abhay Clinics as One Stop Vaccination Centre. We will continue with our mission “to provide affordable immunity through technologically superior biologicals”.

Delivery Model - How does your innovation reach its target populations? What mechanism(s) (e.g., communications, distribution channels, etc.) do you have in place? What is your current market penetration? How do you measure this? Currently we have a spread of 3000 Abhay Clinics all over India. Our target population are the victim of animal bites and new borns. To reach our target population we undertake various awareness campaigns. Awareness to public has been undertaken by way of Local Cable TV ads, auto rickshaw campaign, slide ads in cinema theaters, local promotional campaigns like Paper inserts, Pamphlet distribution, display of banners. Through this campaign we communicate the public on the profile of the disease, Dos’ & Donts’ to be carried out for management of the disease, prevention by vaccination, availability of affordable & quality vaccines at Abhay Clinics. We also carry out wall painting in the vicinity of Abhay Clinics indicating presence of Abhay Clinic at a nearby distance. Direction board at the beginning & ending of lanes are put for the ease of the patients to locate Abhay Clinics. Every Abhay Clinics are provided with Glow Sign Board which enables the patients locate Abhay Clinic easily. We carry out inclinic promotion wherein one to one interaction with the patients is done. We also carry out a special campaign called “DIYA” (Disease Information for Young & Adults) campaign. In this campaign, we visit the schools in the vicinity of Abhay Clinics and brief the students between standard 5th to 10th about disease management, prevention by way of vaccination and availability of affordable vaccines at Abhay Clinics. We distribute pamphlets printed in local languages & any student utility item among the students. Currently we are servicing 15-20 Cr people. Abhay Clinics has already vaccinated almost 10L animal bite victims. All Abhay Clinic doctors maintain vaccination record.

Key Operational Partnerships - What key partnerships have you established to make your disruptive innovation model possible? Who are your partners (business, social, government, other) and what are their roles? How central are these partnerships for your initiative. Abhay Clinics are established with qualified Medical practitioners with MBBS or MD degree. Abhay Clinic doctors dispense vaccines at a rate fixed by HBI. They can charge less than the fixed rate but not more. They disseminate scientific information about the diseases to the public. Provide value added services viz. estimation of antibody titers. After the administration of Abhayrab, patients’ titer values are checked to ascertain that he is protected against the disease. Our Abhay Clinic doctors draw the blood after any specified dose and send the serum sample to us under proper cold chain. The serum sample is tested in our lab and the report is sent back to the doctor, this test is done free of cost for the patient. Abhay Clinics also counsels the patient about the vaccine preventable diseases. A franchisee agreement is signed between the organization and the doctor.

Financial Model - Describe the financial model for your innovation. What percentage, if any, of the total operating costs does earned income (from products, services, or other fees) represent? We invoice to the Abhay Clinic doctors at a fixed rate e.g. Abhayrab at Rs. 160 per dose. The doctor in turn dispenses the vaccine to the patient at a maximum price of Rs. 200/- . This dispensing price is about 40% less than the anti-rabies vaccines available in the market. All our products are invoiced & dispenses in the same way. 10% of the operating cost represents the total income.

Effectiveness - What has been the measurable impact of your project to date? How many people have benefited from your program in total? What policies, communities, or institutions have been influenced to make fundamental changes because of your work? The measurable impact of Abhay Clinics is that we have already vaccinated almost 10L animal bite victims. Our vaccine for animal bite victims is the most affordable in India. We are the only organization who passes on the benefit to the end users. Currently we are servicing 15-20 Cr people. Abhay Clinics have brought about a change by giving customers the right to get quality vaccine at affordable price under one roof. Major Govt. hospitals & private practitioners are also co-operative in referring the dog bite victims to the nearby Abhay Clinics when they are out of stocks.

Scaling up Strategy - What is your priority for the next 3 years and please describe why. The priority is to expand the Abhay Clinic network to 5000 Abhay Clinics and reach a population of 35-40 Cr. and provide quality vaccines at affordable prices. Strengthen the concept of Abhay Clinics as One Stop Vaccination Centre by expanding our product portfolio with launch of newer vaccines.

Origin of the Initiative - Tell the personal story that will help people connect to your work. How did the initiative start? Was there a particular individual or event driving the idea? Tell the reader the story behind the innovation. India accounts 70% of the dog bite cases worldwide. The available alternate to the victims were either the age old Nerve tissue vaccine dispensed at Govt. hospitals free of cost inspite of severe side effects and expensive anti-rabies vaccines available at the retailers or with private practitioners. On request of Govt. of India, IIL set up its plant to manufacture modern tissue culture vaccine anti rabies vaccine with an intention of complete phase out of Nerve tissue vaccine. IIL being a leading player in animal health segment and the second largest manufacturer of FMD vaccine world over and launched Human Biologicals Institute. HBI launched its first product AntiRabiesVaccine – Abhayrab in 2000.Abhayrab is the first PurifiedVeroCellRabiesVaccine manufactured indigenously in India.

What are your two main challenges to finance the growth of your initiative - What are the two (2) main challenges in financing the growth of your initiative with respect to operating costs and capital expenses? What amount of financing would your organization need in order to scale up operations? Opening of Abhay Clinics and providing the required infrastructure itself demand huge investment. Reaching to the masses through awareness campaigns is both time consuming and need huge investment. The biggest challenge was to develop the efficacy of the vaccines to the doctors and credibility of Abhay Clinics. To scale up the project we require Rs. 50 Cr. which is already invested for our new modern vaccine manufacturing facility at Hyderabad.

How did you hear about this contest and what is your main incentive to participate? - (This answer will not be published on the website.) Ashoka Change makers approached us to participate in the contest. Abhay Clinics is an innovative concept and has changed the traditional system of vaccine marketing in Indian Pharmaceutical scenario. Hence we wanted to share the uniqueness about the concept to the world.

Do you have an annual financial statement? - Yes. The Accounts of the scheme are audited by government appointed auditors and available for perusal.

Do you currently have an annual financial statement that tracks profit/loss? - Yes we do have.