When it comes to healthcare there has to be innovative technologies that are able to provide cheap and quality medicine that is affordable for masses. One such company that strives for this goal is Locost. It is a public, non-profit charitable trust registered in Baroda, India. It was founded in 1983 and with their small scale factory make more than 60 essential and quality drugs in lowest possible prices. What comes as a distinctive feature is their focus on medical education along with drug manufacturing. Educating the prescriber and the patient through several publications and training goes a long way beyond what is possible by just manufacturing cheap yet good quality drugs. Their website shows the effort that they had put in to understand and improve healthcare environment in India. Another distinctive feature that i found interesting was the stress on "Being Clean". In spite of operating in critical healthcare industry where one objection by a corrupt person in authority can delay the progress of the company, they strive to keep away from corruption and adhere to ethos of voluntary organization. They also list Karuna Trust as one of their Depot address on the website. As part of AID-LA, we had some close relationships with Karuna Trust who have succesfully deomonstrated public private partnership in healthcare in Karnataka and Arunachal Pradesh. I also contacted them personally and got the following facts about Locost:
They have a total strength of about 25 people; sell medicines worth about Rs 2.5 crores and grow about 20-25 percent everyyear. They serve about 300 NGOs from Nagalan to Kanyakumari literally and some of their customers include CMC Vellore, Christian Fellowship Hospital Oddanchatram, the ANT Bongaigon, SEWA Rural Jhagadia Gujarat, Jan Swasthya Sahyog, etc.
One of their person is currently in US. I am planning to meet him sometime soon and hope to learn more about them which i will then update here.
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