The bioscience industry in Asia Pacific, which has been growing in terms of value and volume, has been affected by global economic crisis with the local currencies becoming weaker against the dollar. However, the companies in the region who have been spending on innovation and research and development have maintained a steady growth in their share prices and market capitalization in the last couple of years.

The market capitalization for about 100 listed companies, mainly from India and Australia, stood at $60 billion in 2010, providing a good platform for investors investing in bioscience industry. This indicates that these two countries from Asia Pacific region (having the maximum number of listed life sciences companies) will continue to have companies going public in the coming months.

In 2012, 65 companies from Australia, most of whom are into R&D, have a total market capitalization of $36.89 billion. Five companies from the country have market capitalization of over $1 billion each. CSL leads the table in the region with market capitalization of over $19 billion, followed by Sun Pharma from India with $12.32 billion. Mesoblast, with revenue of $37.73 million, figured in the list of top 20 leading companies with market capitalization of $2.22 billion.

Although companies such as Acrux, Starpharma, Phosphagenics, Prima Biomed and Bionomics, all listed on Australian stock exchange, recorded less than $10 million revenue in 2011, they generated a lot of interest among investors. This is indicated by their market capitalization of over $150 million. In the list of market capitalization in the region, only 10 companies have crossed the $300 million mark, while around 20 companies are below the $10 million mark.

Over 70 companies in China together have a market capitalization of $54.47 billion. And 16 companies in the country are above the $1 billion mark. Sinopharm, a leading company in the region with revenue of $16.35 billion, has a market capitalization of $5.59 billion. It is next to Yunnan Baiyao Group, also from China, which has revenue worth $1.81 billion and market capitalization of $5.84 billion.