Consumer spend on pharmaceutical products to be Dh5.03bn

Consumer expenditure on pharmaceutical products, medical appliances and equipment in the UAE has experienced a strong increase and is forecast to be valued around Dh2.87 billion by 2014, a recent Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry study has indicated.
Released on the side-lines of the Arab Health Exhibition and Congress 2015, it has also forecast to increase at a Compound Annual Growth Rate, CAGR, of about 9.78% from 2014 to 2020. By then, the value of consumer expenditure on pharmaceutical products, medical appliances and equipment is expected to increase to around Dh5.03 billion.
The increase, the study found, has come in light of the growth in income and population, together with increased awareness of the importance of healthy living across the MENA region and South and East Asia, and has created demand for medical services, generating potentially lucrative opportunities for Dubai to become the hub for medical tourism for these regions.
The study, which is based on a BMI Espicom Business Intelligence report entitled, ‘UAE Medical Devices Report, Q4 2014', discusses opportunities and ways for UAE businesses to benefit from growing demand for medical devices in the UAE and in foreign markets. It also states that traders in the area can expect potentially robust growth in a range of products within the UAE and across the region.
Overall, the UAE has experienced a CAGR of about 13.07% between 2002 and 2013 in imports of HS 9018 Electro-medical apparatus, according to data from trademap.org.
Major import sources of products under HS 9018 for UAE importers in 2013 included Germany, USA, Netherlands, Japan, Belgium and China while major export destinations included developing countries such as Malaysia, Pakistan and India.
According to the data, the UAE imported about US$385 million worth of equipment under HS 9018 from the world market while it exported medical devices worth about $50.6 million worth of goods under HS 9018 to the world market in 2013.
The growth drivers are expected to generate demand for a variety of medical equipment including diagnostic imaging, consumables (such as syringes and dressings), prosthetics and orthopaedics, patient aids, hospital furniture and ophthalmic instruments.
The device segments forecasted to experience the fastest growth include hospital furniture with a forecasted CAGR of about 11.15%, ultra violet and infrared x-ray apparatus with a CAGR of about 18.92% and wheelchairs with a CAGR of about 15.83% from 2014 and 2018.
Last year, the largest device segment by value included diagnostic imaging followed by consumables as these medical devices are expected to see growth. New innovative technologies could also see robust growth both in the UAE and in foreign markets. One possible growth area is called mHealth which could include mobile health applications, says the study.
According to research by PWC, by 2017 it is expected that about 65% of the world's mobile health applications will be related to monitoring, 15% diagnosis and 10% on treatment. The total mHealth worldwide market is expected to be worth about $23 billion by 2017, out of which about 30% is expected be in the Asia Pacific region and about 5% in Africa by 2017.
The study informed that UAE businesses can benefit from these diverse opportunities by intermediating between producers of medical devices in developed countries and consumers of medical devices, usually in developing countries. This is already happening as most of UAE's medical device imports in 2013 came from developed countries while its major export markets included countries in the MENA region and South Asia.
The study also stated that further research of these markets and establishment of links with potential importers could help increase exports. Potentially, greater profits could also be realised by opening medical device outlets selling these products directly in these growing markets across Asia and Africa.
Source: WAM