Updated on 15 June 2012
Companies from three nations, namely India, Australia and China, account for over 80 percent of the total market capitalization
About 500 bioscience companies comprising pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical technology companies listed on different stock exchanges in Asia Pacific (APAC) region and in American stock exchanges, with total revenue of $139 billion for the year ended December 31, 2011, have market capitalization of $200 billion (as of first week of May 2012), according BioSpectrum Asia survey.
The survey says the top 20 companies in the region, which are into research and development, manufacturing and marketing of life sciences products, have recorded a market capitalization of $100 billion and the top 50 companies have market capitalization of $138 billion. Irrespective of countries of operation, the companies that are into research and development and have a pipeline of products have huge market share as their share prices are higher than the companies that are into sales and marketing.
Companies from three nations, namely India, Australia and China, account for over 80 percent of the total market capitalization. Indian companies have the highest share followed by Chinese and Australian companies. From the remaining 20 percent share, bioscience companies from South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia account for close to 15 percent of market capitalization.
All the leading listed companies (in terms of sales revenue) in the region figure in the list of top 50 companies. As many as 40 companies out of 358 listed at different stock exchanges in APAC region account for market capitalization of over $1 billion. Over 70 companies listed on Taiwan stock exchange have market capitalization of $7.56 billion.
The market capitalization of bioscience industry has seen an increase of 25 percent in the last three years. Around 20 leading companies who together had market capitalization of $57 billion in 2009 recorded a jump of about 30 percent in 2010 with few exceptions. Most of the companies recorded an increase. Market capitalization for CSL of Australia increased from $14.8 billion in 2009 to $18.3 billion in 2010. The figure went up to $19.6 billion in 2012. However, few companies from India, who recorded an increase in market capitalization in 2010 over 2009, registered a drop in 2012. The Chinese companies on the other hand witnessed no major changes in their market capitalization in the last couple of years.