MALARIA THREAT

Another World Malaria Day passed away on April 25 with expressions of concerns and commitments by international bodies and governments of affected countries. The World Health Organization urged for more investments towards malaria control and elimination programmes in the poor countries. Three out of four people are at risk of malaria in South-East Asia Region, home to a quarter of the world's population.

Global efforts to control and eliminate malaria have saved a total of 3.3 million lives so far. According to the WHO’s World Malaria Report, 2013, deaths caused by malaria came down by 42% globally between 2000 and 2012 and the incidence of malaria decreased by 25%. But the whatever gains in malaria control could be reversed due to increasing parasite resistance to drugs, mosquito resistance to insecticides and re-emergence of transmission in places where the disease has been eliminated. Now, the emergence of artemisinin resistance in Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam threatens the global achievements in malaria control and its elimination.

Artemisinin-based combination treatment is currently the first line treatment for the most lethal type of malaria, Plasmodium falciparum and resistance to this drug would compromise the lives of hundreds of thousands of people affected by malaria. Another danger lies in the fact that the Anopheles mosquitoes carrying malaria parasites are increasingly become resistant to insecticides

Opportunity's for Global pharma

With its fast-growing, young population and projected  combined pharmaceutical market value of US$80 billion  in 2017, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) presents a great opportunity for the global pharma industry. A common market for financial services will be one of the major components of the ASEAN Economic Community when it takes effect at the end of 2015.

These markets are  developing at markedly different speeds and are characterized by contrasting macro-economic factors.

While  Taiwan and Singapore are both relatively small, with growth limited by the size of these island nations, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines are fairly large emergent pharmaceutical markets, with large populations and steadily growing economies.

Despite concerns over counterfeiting and low efficacy of generic products, IPR protection and manufacturing standards are improving thanks to effective national regulations, foreign investment and joint-ventures with multinational companies. Malaysia and Vietnam are small pharmaceutical markets, typified by rapid economic growth, increasing foreign investment and support from national government. These five markets have significant OTC sectors and rapidly expanding generic sectors, and present previously untapped populations for potential foreign pharmaceutical companies.

With impressive economic indicators being tempered by the limited population size,the Singaporean pharmaceutical market to exhibit a high level of growth.   The volume of trade in pharmaceuticals flowing in and out of Singapore is disproportionately large compared with the size of the country, due to its status as a distribution centre. The country exports a large amount of pharmaceuticals, although the majority of this total is from re-exported goods.

Thailand's pharmaceutical market is estimated to grow at a low double-digit CAGR in US dollar terms between 2012 and 2017. Thailand will have the eighth largest pharmaceutical market in the Asia Pacific region in 2017. In per capita terms, Thailand is projected to have the eighth highest rate in the Asia Pacific region by 2017.Thailand’s pharmaceutical market was valued at US$ 3.6 billion in 2011, with Thailand’s pharmacy market growing at a rate of 7.2 per cent .