Articles by Ajay Nair

As a Portfolio Associate, Ajay works across the Health and Energy portfolios conducting diligence on new investment opportunities and managing investments. He is also part of the Acumen Fund Capital Markets team. Before joining Acumen Fund he worked as a public health professional consulting to a health technology start up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He studied medicine at Grant Medical College, Mumbai and received his MPH from Harvard University. He has worked with the ICICI Bank Social Initiatives Group’s Early Child Health Practice. As a physician he has experience in providing medical services to vulnerable populations through his work on HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections while running clinics for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Avahan – India AIDS Initiative and the Mumbai District AIDS Control program.

Patient Capital and Global Health

July 3, 2008 in Our World by Ajay Nair | No comments

Editor’s note: New blogger Ajay Nair is a Portfolio Associate based in New York City. He holds degrees in medicine and public health.

What role can markets play in providing health services to the poor in developing countries? This was the theme of Acumen Fund’s Health Breakfast last week, which was presented by Omer Imtiazuddin, Acumen’s Health Portfolio Manager.

Omer started out by discussing how 40 to 60 percent of the population in our geographies (India, Pakistan and East Africa) currently use the private sector for health services (For example, see How Private Health Care Can Help Africa, McKinsey Quarterly). These services are generally not available to the base of the pyramid at an affordable price. Consequently, in India for example, 24 percent of all people hospitalized in a single year fall below the poverty line due to the cost of hospitalization. (See Health Insurance in India: Current Scenario, World Health Organization.)

These data point to a dire need and also to an opportunity for social entrepreneurs committed to providing affordable health care to the poor. We have learned from Lifespring (one of our investees in India) that it is possible to provide high quality medical care at one third to one half of market price with a little innovation and a focus on standards of care.

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Omer also introduced our ecosystem approach to the health sector. We now have investments in healthcare providers, health financing and support systems. These generate significant opportunities for shared learning across our portfolio as well as for cross pollinating ideas and innovative solutions across geographies.

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