How Asia-Pacific's healthcare industry is shaping up for the future

It is hard to overestimate the size and potential of the Asia-Pacific healthcare market. The APAC region accounts for nearly two thirds of the planet’s population¹ – and its people’s healthcare needs are changing, particularly in China, where the senior citizen cohort is currently increasing by 10mn annually².

Rising disposable incomes are also fuelling healthcare spend, thanks to a burgeoning middle class across the region. Their numbers are forecast³ to reach 3.49bn by 2030, compared with 1.38bn in 2015. The Covid-19 pandemic has also pushed healthcare higher up the consumer agenda. A survey⁴ by Bain & Company found that almost half of the region’s adults are now willing to spend more to receive better health outcomes and experiences.

Government policies are fuelling the boom, too. The Healthy China 2030 initiative aims to expand the size of the nation’s health service industry to around US$2.4tn⁵ by 2030, essentially doubling it in the space of a decade. India’s healthcare market has grown by more than a fifth⁶ over the past five years. India’s rise as a new hub of healthcare stems from three factors: greater expenditure on private and public healthcare, booming pharma manufacturing and services, and an evolving healthcare technology ecosystem.

Prospects for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the region remain resilient, particularly in South-East Asia countries⁷, driven by factors such as infrastructure and digital development, a rebound in manufacturing and robust investment. According to the latest report⁸ by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, FDI flows in the APAC region’s health sector are now rising, following a brief drop during the Covid-19 pandemic. The US has traditionally been the biggest investor in the region, followed by Switzerland, Japan, Germany and France. Intra-regional investment in the healthcare sector is strong and led by firms from China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and India.

Key areas in the APAC healthcare market that look set for growth include precision medicine and gene therapy in oncology. According to research⁹, the total amount spent on precision medicine treatment in APAC will increase from $8.32bn in 2022 to $18.2bn in 2027.

With innovation at the heart of much of the market’s future growth, considerable sums are already being spent on developing new technologies. China is the second-largest Research and Development (R&D) spender globally¹⁰ on pharmaceuticals after the US, and the country’s latest Five-Year Plan¹¹ for the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, launched in 2021, lays particular emphasis on innovation.

Operating for more than 150 years in 62 markets, HSBC has been helping healthcare clients by providing a comprehensive suite of banking and financing solutions to support their growth ambitions around the world. Sino Biopharm, for example, which was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Hong Kong and Beijing, has partnered with HSBC as it rolls out new therapies centring mainly on oncology, hepatology, surgical analgesia and respiratory treatments. Addressing the challenges that arise from a rapidly ageing population is also a major focus for the company, and it is looking to develop new drugs to fill clinical gaps.

Since 2019, HSBC has supported Sino Biopharm in successfully closing several fundraising initiatives, including share placement, convertible bond issuance and syndicated loan issuance across both equity and debt capital markets. These initiatives have supported the R&D of core pipeline candidates.

HSBC has also leveraged its connections both inside and outside the APAC region to aid Sino Biopharm’s global business growth and to expand its international network. “In May 2023, HSBC introduced a Thailand-based pharma company to us as a potential business development opportunity,” says Sino Biopharm’s Chairwoman, Theresa Tse. “And they will continue to introduce Middle East investors to our senior management, which is essential to our company’s pipeline development, marketing and business expansion.”

Undoubtedly the most significant factor in continued growth, for both Sino Biopharm and the region’s healthcare sector as a whole, will be further innovation, as new drugs are developed and healthcare delivery and management are reimagined. In 2022 Sino Biopharm entered a strategic partnership with an R&D company driven by intelligent and automated technology, and together they are developing new drugs for the treatment of malignant tumours.

The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated uptake of and trust in digital healthcare delivery globally¹², paving the way for further innovation in this area. And the huge potential of artificial intelligence, in both patient-facing applications and critical areas of R&D, may prove transformational. “In the era of large-scale AI models, new technologies significantly broaden the trial-and-error space for pharmaceutical R&D, reduce the cost and accelerate the development process,” says Theresa Tse. “Utilising AI platforms for research and development is an inevitable trend for pharmaceutical companies.”