Malaysia Pharmacy Retail Market Outlook to 2025

The report titled “Malaysia Pharmacy Retail Market Outlook to 2025- By Market Structure (Organized & Unorganized), By Location (Mall Based & High Street),  By Product Sales (Prescribed Drugs, Generics, Non Pharmaceutical Products, Medical Equipments), By Drug Type (Patented & Generics) and By Therapeutic Class” provides a comprehensive analysis on the performance of the pharmacy industry in Malaysia. The report covers various aspects including number of pharmacies, revenue, trends & developments, issues & challenges faced by the industry, competition landscape, telemedicine market and more. The Malaysia pharmacy retail market report concludes with projections for future of the industry including forecasted revenue by 2025, market segmentations, Covid-19 impact and analysts’ take on the future.

Malaysia Pharmacy Market Overview and Size:

Malaysia Pharmacy Retail market in terms of revenue increased at a single digit CAGR over the review period 2013-2019. The market was observed to be at growth stage owing to growing intensity of competition among the retail pharmacies in the market in terms of wide product offering and value added services. The Malaysia pharmacy retail industry has grown at a CAGR of 9.7% on the basis of revenue and a CAGR of 3.9% on the basis of number of pharmacy retail outlets over the period 2013-2019. The market is booming owing to rising number of cases of NCDs, growing online pharmacy services, increasing government health expenditure, consolidation of smaller chains to expand in different regions and services such as Online Consultations & E-Prescriptions coupled with per capita health expenditure of individuals in Malaysia.

Malaysia Pharmacy Retail Market Segmentations

By Market Structure: Theorganized players in the industry dominated the revenues in pharmacy retail market in Malaysia in 2019. Organized market has established strong presence across all the regions in Malaysia that resulted in higher footfall of customers at these outlets. Moreover, the number and quality of services along with home delivery option resulted in higher orders from these pharmacy outlets in terms of pharmaceutical & non pharmaceutical products.

By Location: On the basis of revenue & number of stores, high street based pharmacies dominated the retail pharmacy market in Malaysia. However, the customer footfall & average basket size at mall based pharmacies was comparatively high as customers also purchased non-pharmaceutical products along with the medications.

By Product Sales: Prescribed medicines dominated the market in terms of revenue largely due to the higher costs of such medicines in 2019. Among the other product categories, Over-The-Counter and Non Pharmaceutical Products were consistently growing in terms of revenue share. Medical equipments being the last category showed stagnant growth over the years in the country.

By Drug Type: Generics Drugs in Malaysia pharmacy retail market dominated the market in terms of revenue as they are affordable by the majority of the population and are easily available to the customers in their nearby stores. On the other hand, patented drugs in the market are generally being recommended by the doctors and are usually taken for chronic diseases. These medicines are largely provided by the Government based pharmacies or dispensaries.

By Region: Selangor Region in Malaysia has the highest number of pharmacy retail outlets as in 2019. The region dominated the market in terms of revenues followed by Johor & Kuala Lumpur largely due to the presence of major organized chains & higher Out of Pocket Expenditure.

By Therapeutic Class: Anti-Infective dominated the market in terms of revenue followed by Cardiovascular in 2019 majorly due to the number of cases that have almost doubled over the years. It is followed by Pain/Analgesics, Vitamins Minerals & Nutrients, Anti-Biotics & Respiratory.

Competitive Landscape of Malaysia Pharmacy Retail Market

The industry is highly competitive with 35+ organized chain brands present across almost every region in Malaysia. The market is moderately concentrated with the top 5 players namely Watsons, Guardian, Caring, Healthlane & Alpro Pharmacy. However, in terms of Pure Pharmacy medication sales Caring Pharmacy, Alpro Pharmacy, Multicare & Big Pharmacy dominated the market.  The players in the industry compete on the basis of parameters such as Number of Pharmacy Stores, Geographical Presence, Brand Recognition and Partnerships with Telemedicine & E-Prescription Providers, product portfolio, online deliveries & Other Value Added Services.

Malaysia Pharmacy Market Future Outlook & Projections

The customer footfall at pharmacy retail outlets reduced under Movement Control Order by Malaysian Government amidst the Covid-19 pandemic will witness growth by the end of 2025. The growing demand from the customers along with the online platforms to place order will drive the growth in the industry. Increasing per capita health expenditure, number of NCD patients along with ease in availability of medicines and future acquisitions & partnerships in terms of expansion & service addition in the portfolio will drive the pharmacy retail industry in future in Malaysia.