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Given the commitment to innovation in both the public and the private sector in the country, South Korea will continue to be one of the key leaders in research and development (R&D) in the Asia Pacific region. However, we continue to see challenges to multinational companies posed by the toughness of the country's drug pricing environment. Nevertheless, manufacturers will continue to benefit from relatively high per capita spending on medicines and the steady volume demand driven by trends such as an ageing population .
Headline Expenditure Projections
Pharmaceuticals: KRW16,392bn (US$14.80bn) in 2011 to KRW16,877bn (US$14.36bn) in 2012; +3.0% in local currency terms and -2.9% in US dollar terms. Forecast broadly unchanged from Q4 12.
Healthcare: KRW83,567bn (US$75.43bn) in 2011 to KRW88,126bn (US$75.00bn) in 2012; +5.5% in local currency terms and -0.6% in US dollar terms. Forecast broadly unchanged from Q4 12.
Medical devices: KRW4,432bn (US$4.00bn) in 2011 to KRW4,891bn (US$4.16bn) in 2012; +10.4% in local currency terms and +4.1% in US dollar terms. Forecast broadly unchanged from Q4 12.
Competitive Landscape
The competitive landscape section provides comparative company analyses and rankings by US$ sales and % share of total sales - for the total pharmaceutical sector, as well as the OTC, generics, and distribution sub-sectors.