01-Mar-17 Japan's national health insurance logged a deficit of JPY284 bn yen (USD2.5 bn) in 2015 as an injection of public funds failed to compensate for rising costs stemming from an aging subscriber pool and pricey new treatments. The main culprit was a rise in benefit payments, which grew 2.1%. High-priced hepatitis C drugs Sovaldi and Harvoni also played a role. [image: Nikkei Asian Reveiw]

22-Feb-17 Embattled Japanese electronics maker Toshiba is selling its 65% stake in medical equipment leasing company Toshiba Medical Finance to Canon for JPY3.14 bn (USD28 mn). It has been selling off lucrative businesses such as its computer-chip operations. [image: Koji Sasahara / AP]

 Insights

20-Feb-17 Raffles Medical Group is ramping up in China and Indochina as strong demand for quality healthcare offer attractive growth opportunities. It is also growing its portfolio of corporate clients with more multinational companies using its medical services outside of Singapore, including Japan, Vietnam and China. It also logged revenue of SGD474 mn, a 15% increase compared with a year ago. [image: Raffles Medical Group / Nikkei Asian Review]

14-Feb-17 Japanese medical device producer Nipro will spend USD300 mn on a new factory in Vietnam, to meet rising domestic and foreign demand. The factory will make catheters and other products for dialysis for sale mainly in Japan and Southeast Asia. Nipro has relied on a Thai subsidiary to produce for these markets but has now decided to increase capacity. [image: Nikkei Asian Review / Nipro]

03-Feb-17 The Korean government will invest KRW315.7 bn (USD276 mn) to secure original technologies for bio sectors such as new drugs, medical devices, future medical care, genomics and brain science in 2017. This includes KRW263 bn for bio-medical technology development projects. This year's budget is 31% more than last year’s. [image: Business Korea]