Good prospect for pharmaceutical industry in Malaysia
The pharmaceutical industry in the country is looking quite good. At least this is what Frost and Sullivan will have us believe.
The prominent market research firm estimates that the Malaysia pharmaceutical industry, which is valued at $1.03 billion (RM3.23 billion) in 2007, will record a compound annual growth rate of 10.5% and reach the $1.8 billion mark by 2013. Main growth is expected to be seen in generic medication, therapy, over-the-counter (OTC) and traditional & herbal supplements.
According to Malaysian Organization of Pharmaceutical Industries, MOPI, the products manufactured by the Malaysian pharmaceutical industry are broadly categorized into 4: prescription, over-the-counter (OTC), traditional medicines and health & food supplement.
The generic products and medication will continue to be major source of medication with the government set to become the main purchaser from the pharmaceutical companies. More general hospitals are also being built and it is only natural that the demand for the generic medications increases for public consumption.
A shift in the lifestyle, especially those in the urban areas, are now producing more health conscious people, and this in turn allows the supplement products to make way and penetrate larger share of market. In fact, not only pharmaceutical companies who are making wave, the development also attracts MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) players.
Additionally, expiry of patents (which means that the patented technology is no longer protected by intellectual property law and can be imitated) will result in companies competing with each other to produce and market the same products.
The expansion and interesting development of biotechnology, will also help prospering the pharmaceutical industry, despite hiccups here and there e.g. low salary problem, lack of multinational biotechnology players in the country and so on.
Modern manufacturing techniques of pharmaceutical products today rely heavily on biotechnology especially in the production of antibodies and vaccines. The fact that Malaysia is ranked among one of the top biodiversity centers in the world does not count for nothing.
More importantly, what this means to you folks is that the job market will be vibrant and vacancies as Pharmacist, Product Specialist/Manager, Researchers and so on will be abundant. Major companies and players like Merck, DKSH, Pfizer, Pharmaniaga and Bausch & Lomb have been on some aggressive recruitment mode with their big-size advertisements on The Star’s Saturday newspaper.
Time to polish up your resume.
Image: UofMich