Market Overview

According to a recent report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the pharmaceutical industry in Asia is gearing up to be at the centre of the global market.

China, India and Singapore are poised to become leading countries in the Asia pharmaceutical space. Other territories, notably South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan and Hong Kong are also building strong domestic pharmaceutical bases.

Singapore

In Singapore, leading MNCs have invested over US$1.3bn in plants to produce active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished products for worldwide market. In August 2007, Merck, Sharp & Dohme opened their Asia Pacific regional headquarters in Singapore.

Biomedical manufacturing is enjoying strong growth in Singapore with a significant 30.2% manufacturing output growth to S$23 billion in 2006. This will be lifted with the ground-breaking in June 2007 of Genentech’s US$140 million commercial-scale biotechnology manufacturing facility in Singapore – a 1,000 litre plant for the production of E.coli for ranibizumab injections.

Biologics is a fast growing segment of the global BMS industry and is a key part of the expansion of Singapore’s biopharmaceuticals manufacturing base.

Thailand

Over 60% of the drugs consumed in Thailand are manufactured domestically. Import levels of modern drugs are approaching levels last seen before the Asian economic recession but the Thai market is still heavily reliant on generics. Annual market growth is expected to be around 10-15% for the next 5 years.

Philippines

The domestic pharmaceutical market is valued at US$1.3 bn in 2007. Import restrictions force most MNCs to have a manufacturing presence in the country.

Despite the size and potential of the market, the use of generics is still low. The government has stepped up parallel importation and could bring in changes to the intellectual property laws that could, in turn, affect pricing – drug prices in the Philippines are amongst the highest in Asia.

Malaysia

The Malaysian pharmaceutical market is expected to exceed US$1bn by 2009, to reach US$1.4bn by 2012 – a growth rate of over 11% a year

Indonesia

The Indonesian pharmaceutical market is valued at US$1.7bn in 2007. The domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing industry is strong and the country has become an attractive base for many multinational producers due to its cheap labour force and generally inexpensive production costs.

Source: PriceWaterHouseCoopers and Epsicom Market Report 2007

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