Medical tourism, biopharma leading the way in China’s healthcare flows to Asean

[HAIKOU] Within the Chinese healthcare sphere, patients and biopharmaceutical companies have something in common – they are increasingly seeing South-east Asia as a key region.

Patients are flocking to the region in search of good quality, alternative healthcare treatments, while biopharma firms are making forays into new, emerging markets.

Medical tourism and biopharmaceutical manufacturing are key growth opportunities for companies in China and South-east Asia, as Chinese tourists and biopharma investments flow down to Asean, said healthcare players and observers at a panel discussion in Haikou, China, on Wednesday (Oct 16).

Buranut Limjitti, senior vice-president of international marketing, advertising and public relations at Thai private healthcare group Bangkok Dusit Medical Services (BDMS), said that Chinese healthcare seekers choose to come to Thailand not just for its value and quality, but for its specialised treatments.

“Instead of (Chinese patients) flying 18 hours to the US, we see that more and more Chinese are coming for (more than) simple check-ups,” he said. The group, listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand, sees about two to three million international patients each year.

These services include in-vitro fertilisation, cancer care, cardiology and wellness, he noted, which BDMS has specific centres for.

In the area of wellness, for example, the company has centres specifically for preventative treatment and personalised medication, with some located in resorts across Thailand.

Limjitti said such treatments are aimed at preventing illnesses and keeping people healthy before they become patients, and are becoming more popular due to issues such as high stress at work leading to less sleep or hair loss.

He was speaking at Unlocking Healthcare Opportunities, a panel at the 2024 CGS South-east Asia Bilateral Investment Forum.

Other speakers on the panel included Pu Fei, director at Shenzhen-listed medical devices group Lepu Medical; Qi Fei, chief strategy officer at Indonesian biotech group Etana Biotechnologies; and Ng Chin Siau, chief executive of dental group Q&M. The session was moderated by Wang Yifei, partner at Chinese healthcare investment firm GL Capital.

The need for affordable prices

Alongside Chinese patients, biopharmaceutical manufacturers from the country are also eyeing opportunities in South-east Asia.

Lepu Medical’s Pu said South-east Asia as a whole is a large market and the group is trying to localise the production of some of its device offerings by, for example, collaborating with some local pharmaceutical companies.

The company exports its devices to markets in the region including Thailand and Vietnam, after a move to enter the region last year.

She noted that the products have to have a “good price” to survive fierce competition in the biopharmaceuticals industry.

This is supported by a McKinsey report on China’s impact on the global pharma industry up to 2028, which said that Chinese innovation will “likely get a better reception” in developing economies, such as South-east Asia.

This is as the region is a “highly populous” place where access to innovative drugs is “still limited by cost and other factors”, said the report.

However, entering the different Asean countries would require different sorts of collaborations. For example, it would be more cost-effective to buy a company in Thailand or Malaysia, while joint ventures are the norm in Indonesia, said Pu.

“We hope to set up a joint venture company in Indonesia to make medicines… (which are) mainly for high-end products,” she added.