Asia without a doubt, has been a rising star cannot be ignored in terms of economic development and growth. While other developed countries are facing issues including industrial restructuring, adjustments of law and regulation, and rapid increase of cost that lead to economic bottlenecks, the ASEAN and South Asia have shown significant potential in their economies. The ASEAN and South Asian countries has a population of 660 million and 1.7 billion people, respectively have become the focus new market after China, Japan and Korea for their huge market and active participation in global economic integration. However, due to the barriers and limitations in the geographic environment and transportation, Asian countries encounter challenges in information exchange and medicine delivery, not to mention the differences in languages, cultures and regulations. The development of novel radiopharmaceuticals in Asia is still faced with levels of difficulties and challenges to overcome, including:

1. Uncertain Supply Chain

Due to the limitation of the half-life period, diagnosis-purposed radiopharmaceutical drugs can only be produced domestically. However there’s no clear regulation and supply strategy among Asian countries. 

When it comes to therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals, western pharmaceutical companies like AAA, Bayer and Cardinal Health have been the main developers and suppliers and offer stable supply in Europe or USA. Nonetheless, the aim to build a commercial supply chain in Asia has two biggest uncertainties

Firstly, therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals sometimes need to work with non-invasive companion radiopharmaceutical diagnostic drugs. But the inconsistency of supply chains, immature market and unclear regulations for drug administration all leave uncertainties for radiopharmaceutical development in Asia.

The outbreak of COVID-19 is an ongoing global shock that results in the most significant economic decline since the 1930s. The pandemic undoubtedly has a huge impact on global shipping and the price of commodities, including the supply chain of radiopharmaceuticals in the western countries. The mess also affects the cost of production and shipping of therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals for clinical use in Asia, though treatment-purposed radiopharmaceuticals have longer half-life periods.


2. Uncertain Pharmaceutical Regulation

As mentioned previously, the language, culture, global business and healthcare policy are all different among the Asian countries. There is ambiguity and lack of flexibility for novel radiopharmaceuticals production and manufacturing in pharmaceutical regulation in Asia.

3. Uncertain Clinical Promotion

Most of the Aisan countries still don’t have a clear healthcare reimbursement policy and radiation protection strategy for the new radioligand therapy, resulting in insufficiency of facilities in the hospitals and execution of radioligand treatment. Furthermore, current novel radiopharmaceuticals related literature references are mostly from western races and less well-designed clinical trials are included with limited sample number for achieving clinically credible standard, thus it causes efficacy concerns and is not easy to promote for clinical use and included in health insurance when it comes to clinical use in Asian countries.

Primo Biotechnology, is the startup biotechnology company composed of experts and elites from Taiwan, is committed to evolving precision medicine and benefiting all people in Asia. Dr. Ya-Yao Huang and her Primo Team are on a mission to overcome the previous challenges and bring the skills of radiopharmaceuticals to the world and let Asia shine. Read more about Primo