With the establishment of Rakuten Medical Private Limited (Rakuten Medical India) in April this year, Co-CEO of Rakuten Medical, Mickey Mikitani, visited India in late September to gain a deeper understanding of the current state of cancer treatments in the country. He met medical professionals from leading medical institutions such as Tata Memorial Centre as well as India government officials including the Deputy Chief Minister of the state of Maharashtra and the Secretary of India’s Department of Biotechnology in order to exchange views on the current status, challenges and future development of cancer treatments.
After finishing 17 meetings in two days, he shared his eagerness to accelerate development in India: “In India, we realized that there is a lot of demand for new treatment options including Alluminox treatment, developed by Rakuten Medical. We wish to contribute to saving many patients.”
One of the leading head and neck surgeons, Dr. Sudhir Nair from the Tata Memorial Centre, came to Japan and commented: “A lot of patients have advanced head and neck cancers. They may not be amenable for treatment by traditional treatment modalities like surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy. We would like to explore the possibility of Alluminox treatment and see how it will benefit the patients in India.”
Below, you can see a video of Mickey’s visit to India and an interview with Dr. Sudhir Nair.
India has a significant number of cancer patients, with head and neck cancer accounting for about 30% of all cancer cases in the country1. In addition, India accounts for approximately 26% of all head and neck cancer cases globally2. Many patients suffer from advanced forms of the cancer, corresponding with high mortality rates. With those reasons, Rakuten Medical has been developing its business in India since 2021, with the aim of transforming head and neck cancer treatments in the country.
Rakuten Medical is accelerating the development of Alluminox treatment with the goal of making it accessible to cancer patients in India as soon as possible.
References:
1 Kulkarni MR. Head and Neck Cancer Burden in India. Int J Head and Neck Surg 2013;4(1):29-35
2 J Ferlay, M Ervik, F Lam, et al, eds. Global Cancer Observatory: Cancer Today. International Agency for Research on Cancer; 2020. Accessed, August 23, 2022. http://gco.iarc.fr/today
