A single course of treatment for a type of breast cancer equals 10 years of average annual wages in developing countries like India and South Africa. 75% of cancer patients in India therefore find themselves in a predicament where they can no longer continue treatment.

“Even with insurance coverage, patients living with cancer in many countries have reported financial stress, to the extent that they may lower the treatment dose, partially fill prescriptions or even forego treatment altogether.”- WHO report on cancer drug pricing

Cancer drug pricing and access to cancer medicines thereby remain much debated topics globally. According to a study conducted by WHO, the per capita expenditure on cancer drugs has been 2 to 8 folds higher than the global per-capita expenditure on health.

The ubiquitous problem of cancer drug unaffordability is often attributed to factors such as high R&D cost of drug development, complex manufacturing process, expensive raw materials, amongst others.

At Raspa, our goal is to reduce the cost of cancer treatment by manufacturing quality cancer active components also known as Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients at lower costs. We believe that process and productivity optimization and value-based innovation at each stage of the supply chain can bring about major cost reductions. Enhanced shop-floor testing and data monitoring through laboratory information management systems coupled with blockchain for supply chain traceability and transparency are some of the automation efforts that Raspa aims to undertake to improve productivity.

Furthermore, we are undertaking extensive R&D efforts within the field of process optimization to help us realise our goal. The use of genetic and metabolic engineering followed by process simulations on Artificial Intelligence based platforms are some of the ways through which we aim to improve product yields while reducing costs.

At Raspa, we truly believe that affordable healthcare where each and every cancer patient has access to treatment should be the foundational goal of a sustainable, value-based pharmaceutical company. This is the very goal that we have set out to meet.