The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region is among the world’s fastest-growing markets and, as such, has an increasing importance in the global healthcare sector. To help gain a better understanding of the region, including the trends that are affecting the global pharma and biotech market and how the choice of the right manufacturing partner can help companies achieve success, we spoke with Chervee Ho, Director Business Development and Key Account Management Asia-Pacific to gain her thoughts and insight.
Q: Chervee, can you provide an overview of the APAC market and its importance to the pharma and biotech sector from your point of view?
A: The APAC markets demonstrate incredible growth largely driven by rising awareness of healthcare and accessibility to treatment regimens. The APAC region, which has seen indicators of future growth, has witnessed a positive sign of a greater prospect in healthcare deliveries through increased M&A and investment. The Japanese pharmaceutical market is growing as the largest market in Asia with China having the strongest growth in injectables, outpacing the Korean pharmaceutical market. There is also enormous potential in the APAC market for biologics, and consequently, for biopharmaceutical companies and their injectable products throughout the APAC region.
Q: What are the trends influencing the global healthcare market and the APAC region?
A: New injectable biopharma products are launching into rapidly evolving markets such as APAC in ways that are quickly redefining the typical use cases for new parenteral drugs and their delivery systems. We moved from an efficacious molecule with a familiar, go-to injection method, to a complex, customized treatment with delivery systems optimized for convenient, long-term, self-delivery at home. Three primary trends shape this transformative new reality for the global biopharma market. First is the rapid increase in chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease - to name only two that have a significant economic impact. As their incidence increases, so too does the demand for sustained, intensive treatments. A second trend is the demand for precision therapies. Their complex processes increase the level of investment needed to bring new products to market. Third is the increasing importance of homecare delivery which shifts resource intensive clinical settings into patients’ homes. With lightened workloads, it also reduces demand for expensive clinical services, offering greater convenience for patients. Recently, Covid-19 has had significant implications for healthcare systems and presents them with new challenges, including the management with remote treatment of many diseases. Thus, biopharma companies are being challenged to not only launch new drug products faster and more efficiently than ever, but also enhance them with features that make self-administration as safe, effective and convenient as possible.
Q: How are new delivery innovations helping the effort to meet these demands and challenges?
A: New injectables entering the market must have a complete development plan designed to continually enhance the product’s convenience and patient-friendliness. Often, the key approach is a product’s packaging and delivery system. A rapidly growing range of innovations have demonstrated that they can deliver significant value-added differentiation of a parenteral product. For example, prefilled syringes which make it easier, faster and safer to deliver each dose; pens and autoinjectors for ease of handling by patients, especially those patients whose condition may compromise their physical dexterity; wearable devices that enable consistent dosing of large product volumes, and connected smart devices that combine personalized dosing with data capture and reporting capabilities.
Q: How can a strategic partner help companies be successful?
A: While emerging new parenteral products and technologies can add significant value to a product, they can also add another dimension to production complexity. This situation is equally important to consider and solve. Here, the support of an experienced manufacturing partner is invaluable. With the global shift to patient-friendly delivery systems, a higher level of manufacturing expertise is also required to support the lifecycle of the drug product. A holistic fill-and-finish plan is only one step in the production of a high-value parenteral product. The development plan must also show a clear pathway to several different evolutions of the product’s secondary packaging, each with its own regulatory requirements, quality standards, and manufacturing specifications. Today’s clinical and commercial teams need production experts who can provide multifaceted technical expertise, solution customization, and market foresight – not just prior to and at launch, but across the entire product lifecycle. An experienced partner helps navigate the continuing, dynamic evolution of those ends as patient needs and market drivers continue to reshape the highest-value goals for new injectable products.
Q: Can you offer some insight regarding Vetter’s approach to the APAC region?
A: For Vetter, it is not enough just to simply enter a market. Of course, we want to be as successful as we can be in this market. When we took a closer look at the APAC region ten years ago, we already recognized the market potential. And so, we took the steps based on our experience that were necessary to help us succeed. Those steps included the establishment of a growing local presence in Singapore, Japan and South Korea and, most recently, a local footprint in Shanghai, China. From the viewpoint of a globally operating CDMO combined with APAC’s rapid growth, these actions make very good business sense. As pharma and biotech companies worldwide must deal with added complexity, it is often a critical first step for them to find the right development and manufacturing partner. One that has the necessary experience in putting new injectables on a path to success right from the start.