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| Edited By: |Source: DNA |Updated: Jul 11, 2018, 07:05 AM IST
The power of cinema to influence public discourse and usher in a positive change is once again on display. The tremendous popularity of Chinese black comedy Dying to Survive has prompted Beijing and New Delhi to reach an agreement on tariff reduction on the import of Indian cancer drugs.
Though the nitty-gritty has to be worked out, if things go as anticipated, it will be a huge blessing for Chinese patients who have to shell out copious amounts of money to buy Western medicines. An estimated 4.3 million people in China are diagnosed with cancer every year. Dying’s popularity in the Middle Kingdom – it raked in $200 million within the first four days of its release – is attributed to its highlighting the plight of the vulnerable who can’t afford the wildly expensive official medication in China for leukaemia.
The transformation of the protagonist, a shady medicine dealer who smuggles pills from India, has charmed viewers. Curiously, though India has a thriving generic drug industry, it had ended up importing in 2016-17 drug formulations and biologics worth $129 million from China, which is five times the amount of its medicinal and pharmaceutical export to Beijing.
Despite being the second-largest economy in the world, the Chinese health-care system is not at par with the standards of developed nations. According to a Lancet study, China is ranked 48th in the global ranking of 195 countries in terms of quality and accessibility of healthcare.
Though it fares much better than India, rising health-care costs have depleted the savings of ordinary Chinese who now rely on Indian medicines to combat cancer. Dying... has opened Beijing’s eyes to this reality, and it’s willing to undergo a course-correction.
