PricewaterhouseCoopers is expanding its growth of healthcare and life science consulting practice in China and Hong Kong. To help facilitate this, the international healthcare consulting team of ChinaCare Group, led by David Wood, recently joined PricewaterhouseCoopers China in their Beijing office. The team will focus on consulting, development and management of domestic and international health organisations across the mainland and throughout Asia. Currently, clients of the healthcare service in China are a mixture of hospitals seeking international relations and financing, pharmaceutical science companies, medical device companies, as well as multinationals, health insurers and health-related consumer goods producers who aim to enter the China market.
A key challenge China’s incumbent healthcare system currently faces is the need to take care of a huge number of people with a relatively small budget. PwC’s observation is that the Chinese government’s determination to reform the healthcare system will help tackle the country’s unbalanced situation where 700 million rural residents remain uncovered by any insurance. Moreover, a relatively high percentage of healthcare costs currently have to be borne by patients—averaging at 45% for the past five years.
Dr. David Levy, PwC’s Global Health Leader commented, “Globally there are emerging standards which include the new care delivery model revolutionalised by technology, personalised medication backed by genomic research and regulatory reforms.” He added, “The healthcare market in China is rising rapidly together with that in Asia….PwC’s healthcare team will participate in all the sectors of the healthcare industry, including pharmaceutical science, biotech, health insurance, hospital systems as well as government services.”
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
