Frost & Sullivan presented 20 awards to the best companies in Asia Pacific’s Healthcare sector at the 2009 Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific Excellence in Healthcare Awards held at the InterContinental Hotel in Singapore on 21st April 2009.

Held for the fourth consecutive year, the awards banquet recognized companies across pharmaceuticals, clinical diagnostics, imaging, generics, biotech, clinical research organizations and medical devices sectors. The evening of achievement and celebration saw regional and local representation from the healthcare industry.

Of those in attendance to receive their coveted titles were the who’s who of the industry like Ahmet Genel, Managing Director, Pfizer; Mark Engel, Chairman, Excel Pharmastudies; Elmo de Alwis, CEO and Managing Director, Sigma Pharmaceuticals; Dr. Wim M. M. Botermans, Regional Managing Director, Asia, IBA Health; Grace Park, Singapore Country Director, Medtronic; Tony Wilkey, CEO, Prudential Corporation Asia; amongst several others.

Speaking at the banquet, Reenita Das, senior vice president for Healthcare practice at Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific, commented that the healthcare sector in Asia is expected to perform better than its counterparts in the US and Europe in the coming years. She added that Frost & Sullivan predicts that Asia will take up about 25 percent of revenues in the next 3 years, from its current level of approximately 18 percent.

Elaborating on the likely cause for this shift, Reenita said, “Asia has evolved to become the new frontier for pharmaceutical firms in search of their next blockbuster drug while keeping research costs low. Companies need to set their strategic sights on a future global environment where Asia will not only be a product market, an outsourcing center or a manufacturing powerhouse but also a key component of drug discoveries and high end innovation.”

Frost & Sullivan ascertains the growth in Asia Pacific healthcare through the annual excellence awards where best-practices, high-end innovation and drug discoveries in Asia are recognized and applauded.

The Awards seek to showcase best practices in the industry segments which are synonymous with Frost & Sullivan in-depth analysis and coverage of the Healthcare industry. In keeping with our time-honored commitment in pursuit of excellence and innovation, the awards offered are carefully reviewed and evaluated to reflect the current market landscape and include new emerging sectors.

Frost & Sullivan analyst team short-lists companies for each award category, based on detailed research on market performance. Additionally, interviews are conducted with key personnel of short- listed companies to substantiate, validate and update information collected about each company. The information is then consolidated and a competitive matrix is prepared for internal panel of judges to deliberate before the final list of recipients is derived.

The companies commended as award recipients are those that have displayed exemplary achievements in areas such as market leadership, marketing strategy, business development strategy, innovation, breadth of services and solutions, growth strategy and customer acquisition strategy, geographical presence, amongst others.

Two special awards have been added into the honor-roll this year in a bid to recognize the services of companies not operating within the healthcare space but serving the healthcare community at large. They are the 2009 Healthcare Insurance Company of the Year and the 2009 Singapore Entrepreneurial Company of the Year.

Speaking about the inclusion of these awards Sohini Mitra, Research Manager for Healthcare practice at Frost & Sullivan says “As consumers’ purchasing power grows, along with a growing awareness of therapeutic options, healthcare insurance has begun to assume greater significance than ever before. Keeping the enhanced significance of healthcare insurance in view, we took our first step this year, towards recognizing best practices in this industry and plan to continue doing so in the coming years”

~ Frost & Sullivan congratulates all the outstanding recipients of the 2009 Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific Excellence in Healthcare Awards ~