Executive Briefing – China's revolution in the making
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
An analysis of the Chinese healthcare market in 2007 highlights its many contradictions. On the one hand, it grew by an astonishing 25.5% compared with the previous year,1 surpassing growth figures for most developed countries. By the end of last year, the Chinese market was valued at Yuan633.8 billion ($86.8 billion). Yet on the other hand, China is still grappling with serious problems, such as high drug prices; poor medical insurance coverage, especially in rural Chinese and migrant populations; fake and/or unsafe drugs; and a rather complicated (and constantly changing) regulatory environment. Against this backdrop, no other industry has drawn quite as much criticism in China as healthcare.