SSI: Healthcare industry to post strong 2022 growth

Vietnam’s healthcare industry is forecast to recover and grow strongly in 2022 due to increasing demand for healthcare and with social distancing measures now loosened, according to a report from Saigon Securities Incorporation (SSI).

It forecasts that revenue in the healthcare sector will increase 13 per cent in 2021, with revenue of companies in the healthcare industry to increase 15 per cent. Prices of medical services and medicines are expected to rise only slightly. Healthcare demand will grow stronger than prior to Covid-19, with hospital visits returning to normal levels and pharmaceutical companies posting higher revenue from antipyretic medicines and vitamins.

Many Vietnamese pharmaceutical companies have also recently received technology transfer in medicine production for Covid-19 treatment from companies such as Pfizer and Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD), and may soon be able to successfully produce these in large volumes. Moreover, the expected slight increase in prices of medical services and medicines will be a key factor in the healthcare industry growing strongly. Increases in product prices are inevitable as pharmaceutical companies have had to cope with rising raw material prices while hospitals have faced higher operating costs over the past two years since the outbreak of the pandemic.

In addition, with good profit growth expected in 2022, SSI believes that the healthcare industry will have the opportunity to increase product and service prices. Pharmaceutical company and hospital stocks will continue to be attractive as Covid-19 continues.