ZS Associates

Discussion Topic: The Pharma market landscape of

South East Asian countries
Panel Discussion:
ZS Associates is one of the world's largest business services firms
specializing in transforming sales and marketing from an art to a science.
The companys primary business comes from pharmaceutical clients.
ZS wanted to understand the pharma market landscape of five South East
Asian countries - Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and Philippines.
MDI students worked on the market landscape of three geographies -
Thailand, Malaysia and Philippines.
The objectives of the panel discussion were as follows:

To gain a holistic understanding of the Pharma & Healthcare Market

of South East Asia

What are the Key Differentiators of the South East Asia Pharma &
Healthcare Market?

What is the Value of Different Segments of Pharma & Healthcare

Market?

Where should a Typical Pharma or Healthcare company invest in

South East Asia?

What are the considerations for the company?

Political

Legal

Regulatory

Distribution

Cultural

Three different teams choose to work on the three different countries. The
project approach included analysis of the general country demographics,
the current healthcare system, the distribution channels, the
pharmaceutical industry, the medical device industry followed by
recommendations for the same.

Based on comprehensive analysis and the insights gained, these were the
key findings and subsequent recommendations for the three countries:

Key Findings & Recommendations

Thailand

Malaysia

Philippine
s

Thailand having the largest Healthcare market amongst the

ASEAN Country holds great potential.
However, for the generic market, the past trends have not
been encouraging with the market share falling from with
market share falling from 54% to 49% in a span of 5 years or
so.
Generic drugs that should ideally be introduced include those
for Cancer, HIV/AIDS, Cardio-Vascular diseases
With increasing affluence, market is expected to become
conducive for Patented Drugs with introduction of common
ASEAN medical regime
In the coming years, MedTech expected to outpace drug
market in terms of growth
MedTech companies need to capitalize on growing affluence
and growing investment in High-End equipment by MoPH and
other government agencies
Market is approximately the same size as the healthcare
markets in Vietnam and the Philippines which have
populations three times as large as Malaysia
Going forward a rapid rise is expected in healthcare spending
as private healthcare is gaining popularity
Malaysian Companies are focused on generic drugs , going
forward the market share of these companies is expected to
improve
Patented drugs will lose market share as generic products
take a greater share of the total market, expiry of patents on
many drugs with high sales figures is a chance for
manufacturers to produce generic versions
Going forward the OTC market is expected to register a single
digit growth, market share expected to decrease going
forward for prescription drugs
For Medical Devices, Malaysia is import oriented though there
are 180 local medical device manufacturers
The positive trend in the healthcare market of the Philippines
can be attributed primarily to the following factors - Generic substitution in both the public and private sectors,
which has been a driver for the manufacture of generic drugs
- Increased expenditure on medicines by Local Government
Units - Government initiatives for the prevention and
management of chronic diseases
Private sector hospitals account for 60 percent of the total

number of hospitals, but are mostly based in cities or more

urban municipalities
Insufficient access to low cost, safe, and quality essential
medicines
Philippines government is improving activities for accrediting
hospitals and clinics so that patients with PhilHealth cards
can access them and they can be reimbursed for the services