Young Indian physicians in US turn entrepreneurs

Young Indian physicians in the US are choosing entrepreneurship that gives them more freedom and could bring in greater profits.

As American medicine becomes more "managed" and doctors complain they can hardly make ends meet, young Indian physicians in the US are choosing entrepreneurship that gives them more freedom and could if successful, bring in greater profits.

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At the 23rd Annual Convention of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) here, the Young Physicians sections highlighted careers that hold the promise of taking them out of the managed care of American medicine and the increasingly heavy regulatory environment.

The highly influential AAPI, which has over 25,000 doctors as members, selected some successful entrepreneurs who had broken the physician mould to chart a new course for themselves.

Raising the question, "Can physicians be good entrepreneurs?" Purushottam Madhu, incoming president of Young Physicians, mentioned four physicians-turned-entrepreneurs: Sangita Reddy of Apollo Hospitals in India, Chirinjeev Kathuria of Chicago, Avtar Dhillon based in San Diego and Meetpaul Singh an investment analyst.

Madhu said the health entrepreneurs' forum was inspired by the works of Kiran Patel of Florida, who developed a medical insurance network in the state and was heavily involved in philanthropic work in the US and India.

Sangita Reddy is executive director Apollo Hospitals, India, and managing director of Apollo Health Street in California. She outlined in great detail the opportunities for building the vast healthcare system needed in India.

"We believe healthcare is the next biggest opportunity not just in India but around the world," contended Reddy. India's 1.2 billion people she said needed a 10-fold increase in the size of the healthcare system currently there.

"Doctors need to be doubled, nurses to triple, paramedics to be increased by five times." While the infrastructure is clearly inadequate, she said, 70 percent of healthcare is in the private sector and 87 percent of tertiary healthcare is in the private sector.

Reddy's father, Prathap C. Reddy, had studied in the US and went back to India and became an entrepreneur even though he had never been a businessman. Apollo Hospitals is considered the world's third largest healthcare corporation.

Kathuria, a medical and business graduate from Stanford, has his finger in a range of industries from Internet to commercial space travel.

"Most people ask you one question: What drives you to create these companies? I think it's passion," said Kathuria, who is now announcing his bid for lieutenant governor for Illinois for 2005.

Dhillon, of Inovio Biomedical Corporation in San Diego, as a medical student had opened up a successful hair salon. He had come to Canada from Punjab, India, when he was eight.

In less than three years as CEO, Dhillon turned the company around from a small $6.5 million company with only two weeks of cash left to operate to a company with a market cap of nearly $100 million.

He secured bridge financings, restructured the company to work more efficiently and began designing a trial that would accelerate the marketing of the companies' electroporation therapy system used in treating cancer.

The company now has Phase III and IV trials in head and neck cancer. It has also announced licensing deals with Merck and Vical in DNA delivery as well as an investment by Quintiles.

Meetpaul Singh is an analyst of MDS Capital based in the Palo Alto office in California. His primary responsibilities includes accessing strong deal flow, due diligence on all facets of investing, and investing in companies located in the South West region of the US.

Over 3,000 people attended the June 15-19 meet at the Hilton Americas here.