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Hong Kong Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Report Q2 2008
Business Monitor International, May 2008, Pages: 64
The Hong Kong Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Report provides independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on Hong Kongs pharmaceuticals and healthcare industry.
Hong Kong represents a moderately attractive pharmaceutical market for drug-makers. On the positive side, the market is relatively advanced, supported by affluent, urbanised and ageing population, as well as the fact that the government imposes no formal price restrictions. Most recently, the government announced far-reaching reforms of the territory’s healthcare system, which include an increase in budgeted outlay on recurrent medical and health services from the present 15% to 17% in 2011-2012.
Consequently, BMI also upwardly revised its forecast for healthcare spending in Hong Kong., although critics have pointed out that the special administrative region’s spending plan marginalises the elderly and other social issues in favour of more business-oriented expenditure strategy.
Despite the above development, the government will continue to aim to reduce its share of expenditure in the healthcare sector. To this end, authorities are presently considering a proposal to make both medical insurance and medical savings mandatory for workers, which would provide a base for risk-pooling. In addition, the government wants to collaborate with private insurance companies to lower administrative costs, and allow the market to offer competitive services to the population.
In the meantime, Hong Kong retains its position in BMI’s Pharmaceutical Business Environment Ranking table for Q208 out of the 14 markets in the Asia Pacific region. Hong Kong lags behind the large and mature markets of Japan and Australia, and is found between mainland China and Taiwan. In the coming years, the territory is expected to be relegated to lower half of the table, given the rising opportunities provided by nascent markets, such as India in particular. Moreover, the fact that the birth rate in Hong Kong is already below the replacement level will continue represent one of the key factors hampering foreign direct investment (FDI) in the territory’s pharmaceutical sector, alongside a sizeable counterfeit industry and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) sector that provides competition to over-the-counter (OTC) medicines.
In terms of other developments, the government has recently approached ERM-Hong Kong Limited (ERM) to conduct a Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) study. Authorities are aiming to improve the regulation of medical devices, as the importation and sale of medical devices - bar those containing pharmaceutical products or emitting ionising radiation - is presently largely unregulated. The RIA study will assess options and impacts of the legislation of all players in the industry. The Hong Kong’s medical devices market is well-developed, having been stimulated by the economic prosperity enjoyed by the territory in the past.
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