Spotlight

'We know what combination to offer to patients'

Charak Pharma is perhaps the only ayurvedic company that has introduced the unique concept of 'Charak Clinics'. It's natural and pure healing methods have made them one of the most sought after treatment centres for those who want to heal Chronic Diseases naturally. Sachin Jagdale explores more in an interview with Pulin Shroff, Managing Director, Charak Pharma

Pulin Shroff, Managing Director, Charak Pharma

What has led to the unique concept of Charak Clinic?

Charak has always been strong in developing and marketing formulations for chronic diseases. Our vision is to be the leading players in products and services related to ayurveda. To treat chronic diseases ayurveda talks not only of products but also of various therapies, which focus on chronic diseases.

At Charak, we decided that since we would like to focus on chronic disease, we have to provide medicines and treatments of Panchkarma to the patients. The Panchkarma and the holistic treatments at Charak focus on cleansing the body and restoring the balance thereby removing the root cause of the disease.

How are these clinics different from the other ayurvedic clinics?

A lot of ayurvedic clinics focus on well-being and rejuvenation and offer massages to patients (using Ayurveda as a name). The focus of these clinics is wellness and rejuvenation. Charak Clinics focus on treating chronic diseases. So severe patients of arthritis, skin diseases, infertility etc come to our clinics where we first focus on body cleansing techniques. Massage and well-being therapies do not form the major focus for these patients.

Secondly, all our patients are monitored and supervised by ayurvedic doctors since the treatments are long term and complicated. Monitoring the BP and condition of patients on a regular basis is required to improve the response to the patients.

Further, our patients visit our clinics for a long-term eg. one month to six months. This is because the treatments cannot be done in a day. The results are better when multiple treatments are given for the long term.

At the Charak Clinic

Are they cost effective? If yes, please explain.

The business of setting up clinics is cost effective but has long gestation periods. This is because we are dealing with health of people and results of the treatment come after 1 - 2 months.

Further : a) The ayurvedic consulting and therapies are for the long-term and patients have to stick on for a long time for better benefits. Since we have the patient with us for the long-term we can treat the patients better. On a chronic disease model the patients are willing to pay higher fees to become symptom and disease-free.

Ayurveda promises to make the patient disease-free without side effects. This perception amongst patients of ayurveda being safe is good for us and Charak is making use of this mindset of patients.

b) The investment compared to setting up hospitals is not high for clinics. The capital expenditure in relation to the clinic is limited. Also the revenue expenditure is limited to maintaining materials and efficient staff. The basic cost of medicine and treatments is not prohibitive compared to doing expensive treatments in specialty hospitals. Eg. Infertility management in our clinics would cost Rs.10,000/- per month and IVF treatments would approximately cost Rs.1,00,000 per cycle. Thus the costs are not prohibitive for a start. The only limiting factor is the experience and trained people to treat patients. These intangibles are invaluable. This for a company like Charak is not difficult because it has been in this field of ayurveda from the last 60 years.

Charak Clinic is a genuine effort on your behalf to keep people healthy. However, there is still a lack of awareness among the common people about this initiative. What are your efforts to take this concept to the masses?

We are going state-wise to create awareness among people. Presently we are campaigning aggressively in Mumbai and Maharashtra where our 14 Clinics are. We use regional TV, regional newspapers. Our product is not something, which a person can pick up from the shelf. It is a difficult product for people to understand, get convinced and then walk into our clinics for getting treated. To inspire and convince people who are not aware takes long but some people who have faith in ayurveda easily associate Charak as a better option to provide this service.

What are the rare therapies that we could see at Charak Clinics that are not available or rarely seen at other ayurvedic clinics?

Our success rates have been very good in arthritis, psoriasis and infertility in addition to others. It is a combination of therapies, medicines and acupressure and yoga and diet, which brings about this benefit. Therefore what is unique or rare with Charak is that we know what combination to offer to all the patients, which brings about the benefits.

In addition to this we ensure that the patient leaves our Clinic better than he came.

Do you envisage that ayurveda and Charak Clinics in particular, can tap the medical tourism market?

Medical tourism is very good for India because ayurveda can offer inexpensive treatments for treating chronic diseases compared to the West. Since (ayurveda) involves no hospitalization and also no big surgeries, the cost and effects are far better and long lasting. If the government associates with companies to promote ayurveda as a whole for medical tourism it could bring international patients into our fold.

Do you have any tie ups with hospitals?

We do not have tie up with hospitals. Our strategy is to go alone and have Charak Clinics in multiple locations so that people can access easily.

However, we have set up a ten-bed hospital in Panvel dedicated to Panchkarma therapies. This is useful for people to do residential treatments and also for outstation people to come and take benefits of Ayurveda. We have observed that the results are much better when aggressive residential treatments are done.

Where are these clinics located? Is there any plan to increase the numbers?

We have 14 clinics now in Mumbai, Pune, Nasik and Nagpur. We are now expanding in Aurangabad also. The next phase is to have eight clinics in Gujarat. By the next year we shall have 80 clinics in various parts of India and by 2010 we shall have 200 clinics. We are operating through the franchisee model. Therefore the expansion is faster.

What is the response to these clinics?

The response is very good. The marketing campaign is also aggressive. We are very happy that we are getting good references from patients themselves and this means that our patients are getting good relief from their disease after using our ayurvedic therapies.

Do you use these clinics to promote your products as well?

In all our clinics, Charak products are used and also displayed. We have a special range of products developed only for our clinics. We are expanding this range also to provide high efficacious products to the patients. In addition we have a lot of reading materials and testimonials of patients so that people can read. A patient who comes into our clinics is also advised yoga and diet because this forms a very important part of ayurveda and disease treatment.

Are there plans to take this concept overseas?

The response has been fantastic. We are open to take this concept overseas. There are two bottlenecks, which we are taking care of ie. trained people and their work permits abroad. And secondly, registration of products, which we have to use in our clinics. This is a little time consuming but once we are through we can go aggressively abroad.

Tell us about the ad campaigns for Charak Clinic.

Our marketing strategy has been to talk to regional papers and channels so that we can relate to them. Our product is not the one where you advertise and the customer can pick it up from the shelf the next day. Marketing "treatment of chronic disease through ayurveda" takes a lot of conviction amongst patients to ensure that they agree to come to the clinics. The time period between our ad and the visit of the patient varies from immediate to three months.

We use a lot more conviction and detailed type of ads with longish articles in the form of advertorials. Also we take up one disease like arthritis or asthma and give a complete ayurvedic perspective for the topic. At times we use patient testimonials in ads.

What is also useful is the regular television shows which have a health focus. We love to have our doctors in the talk shows and speak on the benefits of ayurveda treatments for long-term. The marketing effort has to be continuous. In addition to all this the best marketing is treating the patients well when they come to the clinic. The references, which they bring in, are invaluable.

sachin.jagdale@expressindia.com