2009 is Healthy for Asia( Diverse impacts in the healthcare ind...)

Diverse impacts in the healthcare industry creates growth opportunities for healthcare and life science companies in the region

SINGAPORE, Jan. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- The credit crisis and the global economy meltdown has contributed to a significant shift in the Healthcare industry in 2009. Healthcare in Asia Pacific will not be affected as severely as the developed countries.

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Dr. Louis Payet, Senior Consultant of the Healthcare Practice, Asia Pacific at Frost & Sullivan says that Asia will also benefit from this crisis as healthcare companies in the US and EU come under significant cost pressure.

"Healthcare Indices, while declining, have still outperformed the broader market. This implies that investors are still expecting positive activities within the industry in this region," says Dr. Payet.

He further adds that as countries like Japan and Singapore are already in recessions and most other regional economies are slowing, the healthcare market is still experiencing positive growth.

He also added that the governments are also responding to the crisis by trying to stimulate economic activity through alleviation of lack of liquidity and then injecting further stimulated growth via interest rate cuts and increased government spending.

Dr. Payet on a separate note cautions that the symptoms of the downturn should not be taken lightly. While the cost of debt may fall in 2009 it is anticipated that accessing debt will continue to be challenging.

"Pharmaceutical and medtech companies should be better positioned to deal with this situation than other healthcare groups. These companies typically have stronger cash flows and a lower reliance on debt funding. This creates opportunities for expan
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