China – How to strategize and win in the world’s fastest changing healthcare market

In this paper, our experts Marc Yates, Pei Li Teh and Brett Gardiner discuss the China healthcare reforms which affect pharma and propose how to build the market understanding required to launch a brand effectively in this exciting region.

With a population of 1.4 billion people China has always been an attractive prize to the pharmaceutical industry. However, China has historically been a tough market to crack and few multinational companies have seen a good return on their investment. But in 2019, the 70th anniversary of the communist party’s victory, the outlook has changed completely and now pharma is rushing to leverage the many opportunities that China offers.

President Xi’s reforms have included the healthcare sector with the aim of modernizing an overstretched and inefficient system. Seeking to modernize, China has undertaken a range of reforms and for pharmaceutical companies opportunities are opening up. In this paper, we outline the key reforms and suggest what strategies pharma companies could adopt in order to play and win in this rapidly changing market.