In this month’s issue on Pre- and post-covid: Healthcare in Singapore we will cover:

1. Composition of Singapore healthcare service industry.
2. Flashback on the performance of Singapore’s healthcare stocks through two decades.
3. How healthcare companies in Singapore performance defied the pandemic.
4. An interview with Q & M Dental group founder, Dr Ng Chin Siau.
5. Case study of iX Biopharma’s US FDA Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials.

Letter from the MD

Welcome to Phillip Securities Research’s second issue of our Ground
View magazine. Early this year, many of us thought the war on
COVID-19 was going our way, as cases declined to record lows in
February. Sadly, the pandemic remains with us and is getting worse
in some parts of the world. The more contagious Delta variant has
ravaged Asia. Daily cases in Singapore are back to their peak during
the circuit breaker in April last year. However, in this gloom, there is
a difference – masses of people are being vaccinated. A year ago,
we were not even certain if a vaccine would be possible, and from
there, 50% of Singapore’s population is fully vaccinated at present.
We may have lost the battle to the Delta variant, but we can yet win
the war. Singapore is taking the lead by preparing the community to
live with COVID-19 with a target of 80% full vaccination to achieve
herd immunity, after which, hopefully, lockdowns can be way behind
us. We hope for a future where health authorities can focus on the
number of patients in the intensive care unit, and not the daily
community cases.
However, with the resurgence of the pandemic, we thought
it would be fitting to focus on the healthcare sector and the
potential opportunities ahead. This issue covers a basic layout of
Singapore’s healthcare sector. Our country ranks high in its quality
and affordability of healthcare. The issue also looks at the share
price performance of the healthcare sector over the past two
decades – capturing the euphoria of 2010 when two major hospital
groups were privatised at steep valuations. Our analysts studied
the impact of the pandemic on healthcare stocks and found that
surprisingly, discretionary procedures are outperformers. Most
healthcare companies have coped well with the pandemic. We also
get a little more sector-specific by focusing on the largest dentist
group in Singapore, Q & M Dental Group, and its stellar growth over
the past 25 years. We end the issue with a case study on the only
drug development company with FDA approval listed on SGX – iX
Biopharma – to understand what takes place during human trials of
their pain killer product