"Asia is an emerging market for pharmaceuticals," says bureau director-general Liao Chi-chou. He explains that East Asian nations such as China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia spend far less on pharmaceuticals than Europe and the United States, suggesting that there is far more room for growth here than in the West. Drug developers are therefore aggressively pursuing clinical trials in Asia.
「亞洲是藥品的新興市場，」衛生署藥政處長廖繼洲指出，從世界各國在藥品的花費金額上來看，中國大陸、印尼、越南、泰國、馬來西亞等東南亞國家與歐美國家差距甚遠，相對地還有很大的成長空間，此乃藥品開發公司近年積極在亞洲進行人體試驗的主要原因。