Special Report: Focus on Healthcare in South Korea

Healthcare in South Korea is a good news story. South Korea is a developed country ranked 12th in the Human Development Index, while in terms of average wage, it has Asia’s highest income and the world’s 10th highest income. It ranks highly in education, quality of healthcare, rule of law, ease of doing business, government transparency, job security, tolerance and inclusion. 64% of 25-34 year old Koreans hold a tertiary education degree, the highest in the OECD. A world leader in innovation as measured in the Bloomberg Innovation Quotient, South Korea is the world’s seventh largest exporter driven by high-tech multinationals such as Samsung, Hyundai-Kia and LG. South Korea has global leadership in advanced technology such as the world’s fastest Internet connection speed, ranking first in the ICT Development Index, e-Government, 4G LTE penetration and second in smartphone penetration. All this adds up to making South Korea a financially well off and technologically sophisticated market and one that can and does support excellent healthcare.

In 2013, South Korea’s population was approximately at 50.2 million. It has one of the world’s highest population densities. The South Korean government has been making continuous efforts to strengthen the economy to ensure long-term growth, and the pharmaceutical market is seen as a key industry for the country’s future growth. To support this industry, the South Korean regulatory authorities recently made changes to the regulatory bodies overseeing the pharmaceutical and wider medical sectors, to provide a transparent, strong and efficient regulatory system to facilitate faster approval of pharmaceutical products and medical devices. The South Korean pharmaceutical market is one of the largest in Asia, estimated to be worth $18.6 billion in 2013 and expected to reach $24.3 billion by 2020. The market grew nominally at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 3.9% over the 2008-2020 period. The medical device market was valued at $3.3 billion in 2008 and is expected to reach approximately $6.3 billion by 2020, at a projected CAGR of 5.5%.

These positive trends can primarily be attributed to:

An increasing elderly population in South Korea, leading to increases in disease incidence and prevalence as well as higher need for long-term care and medical devices.

Increasing awareness in the medical community and the general population regarding early disease detection and diagnosis, leading to higher rates of adoption of treatments and healthcare.

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