NextBillion.net - Development Through Enterprise - Diabetes and Development - Comments

Diabetes

Ethan Arpi — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 11:34:56 -0400

Hi Zaki, Thanks for your comment. After talking to John Paul, another Nextbillion contributor, I thought it might be important to discuss how all BOP market strategies are not good in themselves. Coca-Cola, which was one of the first companies to target the BOP--think small, recyclable glass bottles--is certainly responsable, in part, for diabetes in places like India. The increased presence of corn syrup sweetened sodas are, like processed rice, a major problem. The trick is not to simply engage the BOP and make them frivolous consumers, but to engage them in ways that actually improve their lives. Coca-Cola certainly tastes good, but with the current diabetes epidemic, it's hard to argue that it improves peoples lives.

India has the largest

Zaki — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 03:08:32 -0400

India has the largest diabetes prob in the developing world. The replacement of whole grain rice with processed rice is a major culprate. BioCon's oral insulin has the potential to be a major force in the disease in the developing world

Diabetes and Development

Ethan Arpi — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 17:27:31 -0400

Morbidly obese boys and girls who slurp down 20oz sodas after

consuming their prepackaged, plastized lunches are the poster children, so to speak, of the diabetes epidemic that is ravaging the United States. But other countries, especially those in the developing world, are no longer immune to the disease that once afflicted only citizens of affluent nations. According to the International Diabetes Federation, the number of diabetics has skyrocketed during the last two decades from 30 million to 230 million. Of the ten countries with the highest number of diabetics, seven are now in the developing world.