Entering a new market in the healthcare sector is a high-stakes endeavor that requires precise strategy, local insights, and flawless execution! Successful market entry goes beyond product registration or distribution setup. It involves understanding the healthcare ecosystem, including regulatory pathways, reimbursement environments, provider dynamics, and patient behavior, and craft a localized go-to-market strategy that drives commercial success and clinical impact.
At TranScience our New Market Entry (GTM) consulting services help healthcare organizations unlock growth opportunities in various complex and regulated markets of APAC. We work with clients to assess market potential, define customer segments, map access barriers, and build tailored GTM plans. Whether you are launching a breakthrough device, specialty pharmaceutical, or a digital health platform, we align your value proposition to market needs and stakeholder priorities. The various stages of our GTM offering are as below -
Market Sizing & Segmentation: Identify and quantify target segments (e.g., hospitals, outpatient centres, specific specialties).
Customer Needs Analysis: Assess unmet needs, workflow pain points, and purchasing drivers.
Competitive Landscape: Map current competitors, their offerings, and positioning.
Regulatory & Reimbursement Landscape: Understand regulatory pathways (e.g., FDA, CE) and reimbursement codes relevant to the new market.
Target Segment Prioritization: Use data to prioritize based on value potential, readiness, and ease of adoption.
Commercial Model Selection: Decide on direct sales, channel/distribution partners, or hybrid models.
Regulatory Approval Process: Align GTM timelines with approval milestones.
Help define scope of sales operations and provider landscape e.g. 3PL/ 4PL: Warehousing, order fulfillment, customs clearance, last-mile delivery, reverse logistics, field service support, import/export regulations, licensing, bonded warehouses, etc.
Determine service level expectations: Order turnaround time, accuracy, cold chain, delivery tracking, etc.
Quality and Compliance Setup: Define SOPs and quality agreements (QAA). Train 3PL staff on product handling and reporting requirements. Establish audit schedule and documentation protocols
Sales & Marketing Infrastructure: Help search and select local sales, marketing and sales ops talent, tailored to the market persona and operations model.
Early medtech companies in Asia today faces several human capital challenges for growth-
Skills Gap : There are big gaps between skills and qualifications of available workforce, particularly specialized skills in this sector, hindering innovation & growth.
Education & Training : Adequate training programs and educational institutions specializing in medtech are lacking in most Asian countries, making it difficult to produce skilled workforce for the sector.
Regulatory Compliance : The medtech sector requires deep understanding of regulatory compliance. Shortage in this field is slowing down growth and product development in Asia.
Language & Culture : In many parts of Asia, language and cultural barriers can be a challenge when trying to attract talent from diverse backgrounds, including expatriates.
Intellectual Property Concerns : Protecting intellectual property is crucial in the medtech industry. Lack of strong IP protection laws often deter investment in Asia
Market Competition : Intense competition for skilled professionals in the medtech sector can drive up labor costs, making it challenging for smaller companies to attract and retain talent.
Having a smart Human Capital Partner for capitalising your Asia Growth Aspirations is key for success!
Author - Binayak Bagchi
Like many other countries, Australia faces several integrated healthcare challenges. I am going to talk of a few here:
Fragmented Systems : The Australian healthcare system consists of both public and private sectors, often leading to fragmented care delivery and challenges of coordination.
Information Sharing : Integrating patient information across healthcare providers while maintaining patient privacy/ data security is complex.
Communication : Ensuring effective communication and collaboration among various healthcare professionals, organizations, can be difficult.
Funding : Funding across different parts of the healthcare system to support integrated care models can be a challenge.
Cultural Differences : Different healthcare organizations have varying cultures, practices, and priorities, making it challenging to align efforts.
Legal & Regulatory : Navigating these frameworks, especially when sharing patient data across organizations, can be a barrier to integration.
Technology : Implementing and maintaining compatible technologies for sharing medical records can be technically complex and resource-intensive.
Patient Engagement : Encouraging patients to actively participate in their integrated care plans is a challenge.
Resistance to Change : NHealthcare professionals are resistant to new models of care requiring changes in their roles, responsibilities, and workflows.
Measuring Outcomes : Defining and measuring the success of integrated care models around patient outcomes and cost is challenging.
Addressing the above requires coordinated effort from policymakers, healthcare providers, organizations, and patients, to create a more integrated, patient-centered healthcare system.
Author - Binayak Bagchi
“Market Access is defined by the bringing of products or solutions to the right patient at the right price points in a timely manner through the efficient enablement of registrations, reimbursement, listing, training and supply”.
As Asia Pacific continues to undergo unprecedented demographic changes, the need for a holistic approach to transform healthcare delivery has never been greater. Addressing the growing demand for healthcare in a fragmented region with disparate regulatory regimes, complex reimbursement systems, and conflicting policy priorities, requires a different kind of innovative thinking from all stakeholders across the MedTech ecosystem.
Market access has previously been more focused on pricing and reimbursement. However, driven by the ever-changing healthcare macro-environment, the move from price-based to value-based approaches and companies developing more unconventional business models, other elements such as regulatory, supply chain & channels, training & education (beyond physicians), stakeholders & KOL management and financing are becoming increasingly relevant.
Healthcare policies within Asia are rapidly developing. It is thus impossible to apply a standard strategy across the entire region. Local knowledge is critical to identify the structure, stakeholders and processes. Medtech companies looking to enter or scale in Asia will have to consider long-term implications of how the market landscape is evolving and build up their capabilities to deliver measured and meaningful propositions backed by impactful data in order to build up sustainable businesses in the region.
Regulatory Compliance : The medtech sector requires deep understanding of regulatory compliance. Shortage in this field is slowing down growth and product development in Asia.
Language & Culture : In many parts of Asia, language and cultural barriers can be a challenge when trying to attract talent from diverse backgrounds, including expatriates.
Intellectual Property Concerns : Protecting intellectual property is crucial in the medtech industry. Lack of strong IP protection laws often deter investment in Asia
Market Competition : Intense competition for skilled professionals in the medtech sector can drive up labor costs, making it challenging for smaller companies to attract and retain talent.
Having a smart Human Capital Partner for capitalising your Asia Growth Aspirations is key for success!
Author - Aijaz Shaikh