South Korea is another leading clinical development hub in Asia to look out for.

The country established the Korean National Enterprise for Clinical Trials in 2007 to meet the increasing demands for clinical trials and to raise national competitiveness. Today, the country has more phase I sites than any other country in the world. Seoul is also one of the most popular Asian cities in the industry for phase II and III trials.

South Korea also embraces the use of electronic medical records and has a highly educated and experienced research staff pool. The biggest challenge it faces is probably the language barrier as English is still not widely spoken.

Malaysia is another up-and-coming player. It has rolled out new initiatives, spearheaded by its Ministry of Health to streamline clinical trials application processes, encourage and build a pool of investigators and key opinion leaders, and fast-track product registration.

It may win over market share from its neighbor, Singapore, by virtue of a bigger pool of patients and lower registration fees.