Global Perspectives

China's new Regulation for the Administration of Drug Packaging includes significant changes from the previous rule.

What if your country, even amid political turmoil, has been growing at a fast pace over the last several years and keeps doing quite well, but is nevertheless home to more than 14 million people living below the poverty line? What if, given this context, the retail prices of medicines are among the highest in the world and the major distributor is granted the privilege of a near monopoly? And what if, because of a huge predominance of multinational companies, lower-priced generic medicines are struggling to establish themselves (even though you passed a "generic drugs law" back in the '80s)? Well, if you are a proud and committed citizen of such a country and, above all, you deal on a daily basis with pharmaceutical-related issues, you must be very disappointed, if not upset. And yes, it's quite probable that you are a Filipino, as Roberto Pagdanganan, chairman of the Philippine International Trading Corporation (PITC), is. In fact, for a foreign observer, the problem of drug prices is one of the most..

Mid-size companies are forcing through their market positions by developing their niche competencies and their flexibilities to be recognized as serious market contenders.

Select large custom manufacturers expand capacity, private equity firms buy companies in transition, and players from India and China build their positions.

A major contributor to his most recent election victory, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's "30 Baht Health Plan," first announced in 2001, was said to be born more out of populist politics than actual necessity for healthcare reform. This health plan is now draining the state-run hospitals, plunging them into perpetual debt and creating a mass exodus of overworked, underpaid doctors to the private sector. Nonetheless, this unprecedented universal healthcare policy's saving grace has been to provide affordable healthcare to nearly 50 million Thai, according to 2005 estimates by the National Health Security Office (NHSO).

Indian suppliers of active pharmaceutical ingredients and dosage formulations expand in India, the United States, and Europe.