Healthcare Investment Landscape in China 2019
Healthcare is one sector of the economy that has been attracting a lot of investment lately. The investments in this particular sector saw massive year on year increases in the past few years. Last year, the year on year increase in investment in the healthcare sector was a whopping 78.6 percent as the investments made in 2018 hit a total of 82.6 billion Yuan.
The increased investments in the healthcare sector are largely fueled by the demographical changes that China has experienced over the past decades. The swelling healthcare demands of an increasingly aging population would lead to increased investment in the healthcare sector sooner or later. Furthermore, the support from the government’s end has also helped to increase funding in the sector. The government seems eager to bring the healthcare infrastructure up to speed with the standards of the 21st century and clearly backs the incorporation of technology in the healthcare sector to efficiently cater to the healthcare demands of the country. For example, a three year plan introduced by the top economic body of the government last year set pharmaceuticals and medical equipment as the most prioritized subjects for research and development. The pharmaceutical industry, as a result, has been the sector that attracted the most investment raking in 21.3 billion Yuan of funds while the biotechnology sector came in second with an investment of 11.1 billion Yuan.
There are clear directives by the government to ramp up the healthcare system of the country to cater to the needs of the large numbers of the aging population since the government recognizes that the current healthcare infrastructure falls short in meeting the diverse and complex needs of this population. By the end of 2018, China had 249 million people that were 60 years of age or above, representing almost 18% of the population. The number is only going to increase in the coming years as the birth rates have fallen significantly.
An enhanced healthcare landscape in China will go on to improve the quality of life and living standards of the population.
There is also a focus on the production of generic drugs to cater to the local population’s medical and pharmaceutical needs. The medical and healthcare system reforms 2019 have a list of generic drugs which the industry is encouraged to research and develop. These include some of the most commonly required drugs by the Chinese population.