Building a Medical Product Development Industry in an Emerging Economy

Thailand has an overburdened healthcare system, which is at risk of failing due to the fact that it has one of the fastest growing aging populations in the region [1]. The facts that Thailand has fewer financial resources and a doctor patient ration of 1:2,700 [2, 3] only magnify the problems of the local healthcare system. One way Thailand could offset some of this burden would be to reduce the overall costs of the healthcare system, by creating a medical product development industry. At present, the country imports over 90% of its hospital equipment and over 65% of its general medical supplies. Thailand, for the most part, has been a third tier original equipment manufacturer (OEM) that makes parts of products for other manufacturers and has little or no place with these companies as a R&D partner. Therefore, the Thai government supports various initiatives that are aimed at moving the country's medical product development industry up the value chain from OEM to ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) by creating fully developed Thai products under Thai brands for export around the world. To successfully enhance Thailand's position in the value chain, will involve combining several related conceptual tasks into one coherent policy program for the medical device industry. This paper expands on a government project conducted in 2016 to scan existing government units and private enterprises tasked with driving R&D efforts in medical product development [4]. Based on the results, a first-cut strategic roadmap was developed to demonstrate how Thailand's medical product industry could move from OEM to ODM by 2030.