THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A joint venture between a leading Japanese biotechnology company and a Kochi-based healthcare company is set to decentralise cancer treatment in the state by launching 80 cancer clinics, many of them in remote areas. The project by Japanese company Rakuten Medical and Kochi-based Karkinos Healthcare (KH) will be formally launched by mid-December.
Rakuten Medical is a globally renowned firm specialising in precision-targeted cancer therapies. KH led by leading oncologists in the state aims to popularise early cancer detection and prevention which will help bring down the treatment cost.
In Kochi, KH has already set up a 31,000-sq ft state-of-the-art hi-tech centralised laboratory on the third floor of Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium Metro station. The organisation is led by R Venkataraman, founder and CEO and who was the former managing trustee of Tata Trust, Dr K Moni Abraham, co-founder and medical director and Dr K Ramadas, formerly of RCC, director - radiation services.
Dr Ramadas said early detection and daycare chemotherapy facilities are going to be the USP of KH. “We are enhancing the existing facilities in cancer care centres. The government cannot do it alone. Public-private partnership can work wonders in decentralised treatment,” he said.
Vivek Wadhwa, a technocrat who researches, speaks and writes about advancing technologies said that the most “ambitious project” in the world is happening in Kerala. He has reasons to get involved in the development of cancer research as his wife, Tavinder Wadhwa, had died of a rare form of cancer two-and-a-half years ago.
“Mickey Mikitami of Rakuten Medical has invested half a billion US dollars in cancer research. They announced that the most advanced clinical trials are coming to Kerala before they do it in the US,” said Wadhwa, who was named among TIME Magazine’s forty most influential minds in technology.