By Kim Tae-gyu
As far as the pharmaceutical business is concerned, Korea is one of the most attractive markets in the world because of the country’s fast economic growth combined with a rapidly aging population.
MSD’s Asia Pacific Human Health President Ramesh Subrahmanian made the point in an e-mail interview with The Korea Times. The world’s top-tier pharmaceutical firm is known as Merck in the United States and Canada.
``The aging population of Korea has increased dramatically with rising incomes and standards of living, and the country now has one of the fastest-growing senior populations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), with a corresponding alarming increase in the burden of chronic disease,’’ he said.
``Our commitment at MSD, as always, is to help patients, healthcare providers and key stakeholders to improve healthcare outcomes with our innovative portfolio of medicines and vaccines.’’
The proportion of senior citizens is rocketing here ― the number of people aged 65 or older surpassed 10 percent of the total population last year, and the figure is expected to double in about 15 years.
Subrahmaninan, who joined MSD midway through 2006, said that Korea is rich in potential not only as a demander of healthcare services but also as a developer and supplier of them.
``Korea is a potential leader in this region in the important areas of life sciences, biotechnology and health technology development, and we certainly want to remain a key partner in this evolution,’’ said the MSD president, who is taking charge of the outfit’s operations in Asia-Pacific regions.
``The Korean government’s policy is to continue promoting the healthcare and biotechnology industries, with increasing investment in local research and development and manufacturing.’’
In order to exploit such potential, Subrahmanian said that MSD puts forth efforts in ``exploring partnership opportunities with leading academic and research institutes as well as other companies’’ in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
``These (the efforts) include Korea’s participation in the MSD Oncology Collaborative Trials Network that allows Korea to access the latest information on MSD’s oncology pipeline and sharing of such data with development resources,’’ he said.
``This will contribute to the building of Korea’s capabilities for cancer treatment. We will also partner with suitable Korean companies to support distribution of our leading medicines in the Asia Pacific.’’
Asked about the acquisition of Schering-Plough, the global pharmaceutical company in the United States, late last year, Subrahmanian said that the marriage of the two behemoths would substantially strengthen the footing of MSD in the industry.
``The strength of MSD is its innovation and a strong pipeline of products and research excellence. Through the merger with Schering-Plough, the company now has a wide international footprint, especially in the Asia Pacific and emerging markets, and a portfolio of leading products in therapeutic areas where MSD has not had a traditional presence, for example women’s healthy, and strong potential in new areas such as biologics,’’ he said.