18-Feb-16 The Philippines’ oldest conglomerate Ayala Corp plans to expand its investments in the healthcare sector with the roll out of 100 retail clinics under the brand-name FamilyDoc over the next three years. So far, it has two FamilyDoc clinics located in Las Piñas and Imus, Cavite. The clinics will house a pharmacy, a diagnostic center, and physicians to handle consultations. [image: Retail News Asia]

18-Feb-16 Hundreds of graduate doctors, many pharmacy and dentistry degree holders in Malaysia are facing long delays getting training placements in public hospitals, a prerequisite for registration in their professions. Some graduates have been waiting for up to six months and have expressed fears of being jobless despite holding a degree in their field. [image: The Malaysian Insider]

18-Feb-16 If current trends continue, half the world’s population (4.8 bn people) will be short-sighted in just over three decades, with one-fifth of those expected to have a significantly increased risk of blindness. 96% of teenagers in Korea are short-sighted and in Singapore, China and Japan the rate is around 80-90%. [image: Nomad_Soul / Shutterstock.com]

15-Feb-16 Nearly 1,900 services and products at Vietnam's public hospitals will become around 30% more expensive in Mar-16. The new tariff regime will see patients pay for items that were previously government subsidised, such as power, water, equipment maintenance, waste treatment, training, research and more. [image: Thanhnien.vn]

12-Feb-16 Foreigners will be allowed to own a majority of up to 67% of businesses in Indonesia's healthcare sector, as part of sweeping reforms to liberalise its economy. Sectors ranging from fishery to retail - 49 in all - will be affected, with non-citizens able to take up 100% holdings in pharmaceutical raw material manufacturing firms. [image: AFP]