1. INTRODUCTION Department of science and technology, Government of India in association with Biomedical center at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri campus has developed a new product called Insulin Pump to treat diabetic people. Insulin pump is a medical device used for administration of insulin to treat diabetic mellitus. It was found that over 30 million people in India are affected by diabetes. India has been identified as the country with highest number of diabetic people. Most of the people in India, is using the traditional method for controlling the blood sugar level, which make everything cumbersome for the people who are affected by diabetes. Insulin pumps will let the people free from all the worries and help them to have a comfortable life. To identify to what extend the people are benefited by insulin pumps over traditional methods, to control diabetes is also included in our proposal. The insulin pumps right now available in the market is not affordable by majority of the diabetic patients in India and Amrita has been able to develop a cost effective insulin pump. The proposal would also involve why the common diabetic people should prefer insulin pumps of Amrita Labs.
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International players has set their foot in India with the eye of exploiting the whole market right now available in India. The proposal would give a clear idea about the market potential, market segmentation and the target group. The potential market for insulin pumps are to be identified which can be clarified through the research, considering all other problems that were discussed through the telephonic conversation. 2. OBJECTIVES 2.1 Decision Maker’s Problem: Should Amrita Labs launch Insulin Pump into the market?
2.2 Market Research Problem: To analyze the market potential To study the competition To analyze who are the prospective buyers and influencers along with their preferences over traditional mode of insulin delivery and insulin pumps To understand the critical features that consumers expect to be embedded into an insulin pump To understand the myths about insulin pumps?
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3. DESK RESEARCH 3.1 PURPOSE Right now Medtronic’s in collaboration with Apollo hospital holds the major share in insulin pump market. We plan to obtain the details about the sales of insulin pumps through Apollo hospital. We plan to understand the need to collaborate with hospitals to sell the product easily and how much credibility will it develop if we sell the product through hospitals. We would be gathering data to analyze if there is a ready market for low cost insulin pumps produced by Amrita Labs. The desk research helped us know that over 30 million have now been diagnosed with diabetes in India where the total population is now 1000 million. The CPR (Crude prevalence rate) in the urban areas of India is 9 per cent. In rural areas, the prevalence is approximately 3 per cent of the total population. The estimate of the actual number of diabetics in India is around 40 million. This means that India actually has the highest number of diabetics of any other country in the entire world. Only controlling of diabetes is possible as diabetics can’t be cured completely. So there is a huge market potential for diabetic drugs. It is proved that people with diabetes who keep their glucose at near-normal
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levels significantly reduce their risk of long-term complications. At present the most popular ways of insulin intake is through tablets, insulin pens and syringes. New developments are happening all the time, and the new technologies, some of which are under development and some which are developed to hit the market, are insulin inhalers, insulin spray, insulin pill, insulin analogues, insulin complement, islet cell transplant, insulin pumps and guardian continuous glucose monitoring system. Though in use for more than 3 decades, insulin pumps are now gaining more attention in India because of their unique ability to continuously infuse insulin, closely mimicking that of physiological secretion from a normal pancreas. Unlike insulin shots with syringes, pump infusion sites need to be changed less frequently. Scientific evidence from published studies have proven added benefit of insulin pumps in improving quality of life, normalizing sugars in recalcitrant diabetes, improving sexual function, and relieving the intractable pain of neuropathy. In the western world, pumps are commonly used with T1DM subjects, whereas in India 80% of pumpers are T2DM subjects. The success of insulin pump therapy depends on selection of the right candidate, extensive education, motivation, and implementing the sophisticated programs with skill. However, all affordable patients are not ideal candidates for pump therapy because for successful continuation of pump therapy other inclusion criteria should also be fulfilled. 4
3.2 PROCEDURE The desk research focused to gather information about current market for insulin pumps in India started with broader scenario of collecting information about the population of diabetic patients in India to specific scenario of collecting information about current trends in insulin delivery devices in India. Literature reviews helped to know about latest development in the field. Further, specific information about insulin pumps in India is also looked upon. 3.3 SUMMARY From desk research it is found that India has the highest number of diabetics as compared to any country in the entire world. The most popular insulin delivery devices in India are insulin tablets, insulin pens and insulin syringes. But recently, insulin pumps officially called as “Continuous Subcutaneous Insulin Infusion” is gaining attention in the Indian market. Further desk research will be focusing more on identifying market potential, customer perception, preferences, behavior and attitude towards insulin pumps, general price elasticity of target market etc. 5
4. RESEARCH DESIGN 4.1 EXPLORATORY RESEARCH The exploratory research dealing with this project would involve finding the current scenario of diabetic world, dealers of insulin pumps to know about the customer response, how the major players are having competitive advantage for their product. The information can be collected from various sources like physicians, buyers etc. Later we will enhance the data collected for a better knowledge of understanding. Exploratory research will give only an eagle-eye view of the research. To get the detailed perspective of each factor that may influence the market of insulin pumps, there will be Delphi analysis with doctors and scientists, in-depth interviews with people from different socio-economic class and focus group discussions. 4.1.1 DELPHI ANALYSIS:
In this we propose to have interviews with doctors and scientist who are specialized in this field. We are planning to target doctors who are specifically treating diabetic people to get the details regarding 6
Will the doctors recommend for insulin pumps? If NO why? Current scenario of diabetic world What is the future for insulin pumps?
Why do doctors influence the buyers to buy a particular brand
From scientists who are already researching in this field we will try to get the new kind of technologies that are being researched in this field which can be a threat to this in future 4.1.2 DEPTH INTERVIEWS: We will conduct depth interviews with people from different economic class to understand Their preferences in buying insulin pumps What are the critical features that the product should have Factors that will attract them into buying of insulin pumps Level of influence by the doctors on the buying behavior After sales services that the customers expect
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4.1.3 PILOT SURVEY: We also plan to have pilot surveys to get further more details We are also conducting depth interviews with medical representatives about the same queries in his/her perspective as well as customers (as a medical representative has more knowledge about buying behaviors of doctors, patients etc.)
4.1.4 FOCUS GROUP: We are also planning to have discussions with doctors and upper middle class segment Influential factors that can lead the customers to buy insulin pumps Which economic group of people can buy this product? We will also have discussion with customers who have the experience in using insulin pumps
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4.2 DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH: 4.2.1 SURVEYS: Online survey Specific Surveys according to economic group Pilot surveys Netnography
Netnography is the analysis of free behavior of users in Internet which will be conducted along with the online surveys. It helps us in providing consumption patterns of common people and their preference towards the insulin pumps.
If possible we will be trying to conduct netnography on doctors available on internet so that we could analyze how many doctors will suggest for insulin pumps given a situation.
We will put up open ended as well as closed ended questions to get the ideal answers so that we can get the useful customer insights. We plan to collect as much primary data as possible for the insulin pump market. We will also try to get the buying pattern of customer’s in retail healthcare outlets. 9
5. SAMPLING PROCESS 5.1 TARGET POPULATION AND SAMPLE DESIGN: We are planning to take a sample of about 50 to 100 diabetic patients who are currently taking traditional methods of insulin. This will give us some real responses and opportunity to understand differences. So that we will be able to understand the problems that are being faced by them. We are planning to classify the diabetic patients based on their age, gender and financial status so that we can get a better understanding which will in turn help us to find a potential market.
6. DATA ANALYSIS We are planning to collect both primary and secondary data which can be later analyzed using SPSS. Also research will consists of both qualitative and quantitative data which will provide us a real insight of the market and how it is distributed, and how can we practically enter into this market with our insulin pump.
7. REPORTING A report based on desk, qualitative and quantitative research will be submitted to our Marketing Research professor, Dr. Deepak Gupta and mentor Mr. Maheshwar Pratap. Progress report will be submitted every week.
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8. TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
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9. CREDENTIALS “Sweet poison- epidemic of 21st century”- project would be monitored and evaluated by Prof. Dr. Deepak Gupta. B. Tech. (IIT-D), PGDM (IIM-C), MS (Mktg.), MA (Econ.), PhD at California-Berkeley. Dr. Gupta has more than 13 years of teaching and research experience and has worked with several research projects in University of California, Berkeley. The project would be mentored by Mr. Maheshwar Pratap, faculty associate, Amrita School of Business, Amritapuri who was actively involved in coordination of activities related to development, industrialization and commercialization of novel bio-medical devices into emerging and regulated markets and Dr. Bipin Nair, Professor and Dean of Amrita School of Biotechnology who has in-depth knowledge in biotechnology. Team Risky Business: Sl. No 1 2 3 4 5 Name Deepak Joshy Jobin Raj Neeraja S Ravi Teja Polineni Vignesh Sankar J Qualification B. Tech (ECE) B. Tech (ECE) BBM B. Tech (ECE) B. Tech (Mech)
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10. REFERENCES Journals: Patni P, Varghese D et.al, ‘Needle-free insulin drug delivery’, Indian J Pharm Sci, Vol 68 Issue 1, 2009 Jothydev Kesavadev, Ashok Kumar Das, et.al, ‘Use of Insulin pumps in India: Suggested guidelines based on experience and cultural differences’, Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics, Vol 12 Issue 10, October 2010 S. Chauhan Nitesh, Chauhan Sanjeev et.al, ‘Recent Advances in Insulin Delivery Systems: An Update’, World Applied Sciences Journal 11 (12): 1552-1556, 2010 Book: Naresh K. Malhotra and Satyabhushan Dash, ‘Marketing Research, An Applied Orientation’, 6th edition.
Websites: RNCOS E-SERVICES PVT. LTD. (2008). Insulin Delivsisery Systems Market Analy. Available: http://www.rncos.com/Report/IM207.htm. Last accessed 13th Feb 2014. Novo Nordisk Worldwide. (2013). Annual Report 2013. Available:
http://www.novonordisk.com/images/investors/investor_presentations/20 11/CMD2011/03_The_global _diabetes_care_market_CMD2011.pdf. Last accessed 13th Feb 2014.
