Southeast Asian generics market projected to grow

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — A variety of macroeconomic factors are driving growth in the generic drug market in Southeast Asia.

According to CPhI, which is sponsoring the CPhI Southeast Asia Summit 2013 in Bangkok next month, the drug industry in the region is projected to grow to $3.9 billion by 2016, and macroeconomic factors, such as government policies, stable economies and growing population are driving generics.

"Generics will grow in the next five to 10 years, but without a balanced environment for cultivating innovation, such development will not be sustainable," Bayer Healthcare, China, senior patent attorney and conference speaker Jennifer Jian Kang said.

Government policies include plans by the Indonesian government to implement universal health coverage. "This is a huge undertaking by a government who, within the next four years, has targeted touching on over 90% of the population — a huge undertaking given Indonesia's population of 240 million people," SOHO Group president, CEO and director Marcus Pitt said. "The pharmaceutical market dominated by local players has been gearing up its production and distribution infrastructure to cope with the expected multiple increases in generics."