Asian Pricing and Reimbursement

A land of pharma opportunity and financial challenges

Growing major trends are emerging across Asian healthcare markets. Rising incomes, increased government healthcare expenditure, higher life expectancies and a surge of chronic illnesses are boosting the demand for pharmaceutical products and services in the region. This sea of change is also being driven by multiple factors including government healthcare reforms, increasing Universal Health Coverage (UHC), the rise of private financing and heavy promotion of the generic market.

This offers a significant opportunity both for established pharmaceutical companies in the region who wish to continue to thrive and for those considering entering the Asian market. However, it also presents a unique set of regional challenges and commercial success will be dependent on understanding the complexities of the Asian pricing and reimbursement environment.

Opportunities within a changing Asian market

The Asian healthcare landscape is a dynamic one. The region consists of a wide diversity of healthcare markets in very different stages of development, particularly with regard to their healthcare infrastructure.

The healthcare environment within Asia is changing dramatically and spending in the region has shown an explosive rise in recent decades. Between 2009-2012 Asian markets showed the highest growth of per-capita healthcare spending in the world, at 38.8% of CAGR compared with the global average of 26.3%.1 The sharp increase of healthcare spending in this region can be explained by several factors, including growing economies, expansion of the middle class, the rise of chronic illness and increased life expectancy.

To meet this rapid growth, Asian healthcare systems will need to expand and adapt. As more countries implement healthcare reforms, leading to greater patient population coverage, countries across Asia will need to address pricing and reimbursement challenges to meet healthcare demands.