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Indian oncology medicine manufacturers are witnessing a disconnect between rapid scientific innovation like targeted therapies, biosimilars, AI-driven drug development and the on-ground implementation in clinical settings, particularly in resource-constrained environments.
According to Dr Shashank Srinivasan, medical affairs director-oncology business unit, AstraZeneca Pharma India, “Advances in precision medicine, cancer care in India has undergone a major shift. It is changing how the disease is understood and managed. This has opened doors to early intervention and personalised care. The challenge now is to ensure that these benefits are felt consistently in everyday practice.
Advances in oncology, like next-generation sequencing (NGS), minimal residual disease assays, and targeted and immuno-oncology therapies, are being increasing adopted even into earlier lines of care. Yet routine acceptance remains uneven due to fragmented referral pathways, variable diagnostic capacity and quality, high out-of-pocket expenditure, and geographic disparities, affecting outcomes. Bridging these barriers requires a multidisciplinary, data-enabled, and patient-centred approach with disciplined execution across the care continuum, he added.
This begins with understanding tumour biology and acting promptly via biomarker led approaches to identify patients most likely to benefit from specific therapies. However, sophisticated treatment needs to be supported by timely and validated testing, careful patient selection, and tightly coordinated care. Expanding early detection, improving diagnostic reach beyond metros, and standardising evidence based care pathways are critical steps to address inequities, Dr Srinivasan told Pharmabiz in an email.
Multidisciplinary tumour boards (MTBs) play a central role in translating complex evidence into personalised care plans. When embedded into standard workflows, MTBs improve guideline adherence and reduce unwarranted variation. Tele MTBs can extend expertise from tertiary centres to district hospitals, enabling equitable decision making for patients in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, he noted.
Operationalising innovation means focusing on diagnostics access and quality, pathway standardisation, and navigation. Harmonising test menus to guideline mandated markers, strengthening external quality assurance, and co locating biopsy, pathology, and molecular laboratories can shorten time to treatment. The increasing accuracy, speed and decreasing cost of NGS have led to the generation of an enormous quantity of genomic data, expanding our knowledge about the molecular landscape of cancer. Data closes the loop from science to practice. Capturing data with standardised models along with privacy preserving analytics can streamline routine care. Crucially, it can be extended beyond clinical response to include quality of life, treatment burden, and long term survivorship, said Dr Srinivasan.
Lessons from oncology are relevant to other high burden non communicable diseases like cardiovascular, renal, metabolic, and respiratory where delays in diagnosis and fragmented pathways similarly undermine outcomes. Ensuring timely, quality healthcare despite barriers shaped by geography, income, gender, and infrastructure is central to improving health equity, he said.
In India, bridging science and practice is less about isolated breakthroughs and more about disciplined implementation. To this end AstraZeneca supports real-world adoption through quality-assured diagnostics, clinician education, and data partnerships with oncology networks across India to scale equitable access and systematically measure outcomes. When these elements come together, scientific progress translates into measurable and equitable patient benefits, said Dr Srinivasan.
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