The pharma sector registered 16.6 per cent growth as it was meeting the growing demand from healthcare services providers
The COVID-19 outbreak is having a major impact on business enterprises worldwide, as they grapple with weak demand and brace up for a recession. Against the backdrop, the total market capitalisation (M Cap) of the top 50 companies in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region witnessed a substantial decline during the first quarter (Q1) ended 31 March 2020. An analysis of GlobalData’s Company Profiles Database reveals that in Q1 2020, the composite M Cap of the top 50 companies in APAC witnessed a substantial quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) decline of 11.4 per cent from $6.6 trillion to $5.8 trillion.
However, pharma companies were able to buck the trend, according to GlobalData, a data and analytics company. The pharma sector registered 16.6 per cent growth as the companies in the sector were busy in meeting the growing demand from healthcare services providers. Companies specifically dealing with pharma realised a QoQ growth of 21 per cent from $179 billion to $216.6 billion, whereas biopharma companies reported 7.6 per cent QoQ growth from $87 billion to $93.7 billion.
Anindya Biswas, Company Profiles Analyst at GlobalData, comments, “The general economic downturn across the world is reflected in the APAC region as well. The spread of the pandemic coupled with uncertainty around economic recovery has affected the way industries work, as they face daily challenges to stay afloat in tough business conditions.”
Biswas concludes, “The panic associated with the rapid increase in the number of patients with the COVID-19 symptoms lead to a rise in the spending in healthcare solutions to fight the disease. Q2 M Cap is likely to be driven by how quickly China recovers from the pandemic, apart from how other countries rein in on the outbreak and emerge out from the ongoing lockdown measures.”
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