More than $50bn a year could be shaved off healthcare expenditure in Asia Pacific if regional policy makers were to lean into self-care, according to the Global Self-Care Federation.
An additional $650bn in annual welfare savings could also be potentially generated through future self-care efforts, noted Haleon’s Tamara Rogers, who presented the association’s research on the social and economic value of self-care at the 2024 GSCF, Asia Pacific Self Medication Industry and Thai Self-Medication Industry Association Joint Congress in Bangkok, Thailand.
Self-care is already saving the region over $30bn in healthcare costs, added Rogers, who will succeed Kenvue’s Manoj Raghunandanan as chair of the association in 2025, and who is also chief marketing officer at Haleon.
“So it’s very significant,” Rogers commented. “I think this study shows that no matter where you are in the world, there is so much value that we already get from self-care, but there is so much more that we can achieve.”
What’s The Plan?
The question for the EU-ASEAN Business Council’s Christopher Humphrey was how to actually move forward. “We need to establish an enabling environment, improve engagement and access and leverage digitalization,” he summarized, based on a recently published paper.
Establishing a safe and enabling environment across the ASEAN region meant firstly implementing “simple and easy to understand educational campaigns to empower consumers and healthcare practitioners to encourage responsible self-medication and self-care,” Humphrey explained.
In the Philippines and Vietnam, for example, Opella – formerly Sanofi Consumer Healthcare – has been partnering with schools to address the issue of childhood diarrhea caused by inadequate access to clean food, water, and hygiene.
Via its Enterogermina probiotic brand, the firm has been promoting the importance of gut health through proper hygiene practices and lifestyle changes, as well as supporting the construction of improved sanitation facilities in schools.
‘Provocative Edutainment’
Open dialogs between stakeholders to identify and overcome existing barriers to self-care adoption and supporting research initiatives to gather evidence of policy development and decision making in self-care promotion were also key, Humphrey continued.
Vietnam, for example, ranks among the top five countries with the highest abortion rates and the top two ASEAN countries with the highest growth rate of HIV/AIDS.
To tackle these issues, Reckitt via its Durex sexual health brand partnered with the Vietnam Administration of HIV/AIDS Control, local publisher Vietcetera, NGO PATH, and social enterprise Glink to address sex-taboo topics and transform “safe sex education” into “provocative edutainment.”
Both education and dialogue will “create a feedback mechanism where the industry, public, stakeholders and consumers will constantly be involved to better the environment for and of self-care,” Humphrey commented.
Rx-To-OTC Switch
In terms widening access, switching medicines from prescription to OTC status remained crucial, Humphrey insisted.
“While increased Rx-to-OTC switching is an important means of promoting better self-care, there is, unfortunately, still a lack of common regulatory classification for medicines across ASEAN,” according to the EU-ABC’s paper.
Ultimately, EU-ABC would like to see a “general region-wide classification” for Rx-to-OTC switch, which, although representing a “gold standard,” the EU-ABC acknowledges could be considered “contentious.”
In the meantime, some “good buys” could be sought, such as “simplifying registration processes and streamlining advertising approvals to expedite the availability of self-care options for consumers,” Humphrey suggested.
Ride The Wave
Humphrey’s final recommendation involved leveraging digitalization to make healthcare more accessible for consumers and healthcare practitioners.
Digital labelling, for example, has been increasingly used across Southeast Asia, Humphrey reported, with an 83% increase in the use of QR codes observed between 2014 and 2018.
In Singapore, the Health Sciences Authority has introduced an initiative requiring marketers to place QR codes or website URLs on product packaging, which links to a secure online system that publishes the package insert and patient information leaflet in a digital format.
In 2024, the HSA launched a pilot program to extend e-labelling to pharmacy only (P) and general sale list (GSL) therapeutic products.
Alongside apps, wearables and e-commerce, digital health has become increasingly popular with consumers, Humphrey noted, and he encouraged attendees to “ride this wave” to make healthcare more accessible.
Integral Component
“Self-care is an integral component of the ASEAN health clusters,” Humphrey concluded, especially in its role in “promoting healthy lifestyles, improving health outcomes, enhancing healthcare access and literacy and strengthening the resiliency of healthcare systems across the region.”
“Self-care is a tool that can unlock all these benefits,” he added, “but we can only provide its merits and value in a safe and enabling environment that involves the whole of society.”