MacroscopeIndonesia’s policy misstep is Vietnam’s opportunity to seize the sweet spot as Southeast Asia’s pharmaceutical hub

Vietnam will be the biggest pharmaceutical market in Southeast Asia in less than a decade. Domestic and biotech joint ventures in Vietnam are on track to rescue the Indian market as well as become a major supplier and R&D hub for Japanese biomedical firms.

Additionally, by coordinating with Vietnamese tech entrepreneurs, medicine verification apps for affordable Vietnamese drugs will dominate the scandal-plagued Chinese market.

By continuing to strengthen its intellectual property protections, Vietnam is creating a biopharmaceutical sweet spot in the region. As India and China are regularly rocked by pharmaceutical scandals, Vietnam’s growing status as a reliable junior partner with the United States and other advanced economies can be transformed into an international start-up hub for complex, long-term ventures like biopharmaceutical development.

In contrast, Indonesia is actively driving out biopharmaceutical and other sophisticated ventures. As the final nail in their own coffin, Jakarta imposed new regulations that required the compulsory licensing of any pharmaceutical product not being made in the country.

Infographics Made in China 2025 – Betting big on biotech

Counter-intuitively, this intellectual property grab will result in the list of drugs not available in Indonesia to grow even longer. Foreign direct investment in the industry has collapsed and no one wants their intellectual property held hostage in a joint venture.