Many major deals contribute to bringing Vietnam to the regional healthcare M&A map
On November 21, the first International Conference on Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the health sector in 2025 (Hima 2025) was held in Vietnam, organized by Vietnam Medical Legal Consulting Co., Ltd. (Medicallaw) in coordination with the Ministry of Health.
According to Associate Professor, Dr. Dang Duc Nhu - Senior Advisor of Medicallaw, with many years of experience working at the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management, Ministry of Health - said: Vietnam has emerged as a market with great potential in the general trend of the world health M&A market. In the first 8 months of 2025, the total M&A value reached 4.8 billion USD, up 21% over 2024, with an average transaction scale of 42 million USD, up 15% over the period of 2022-2023.
The attractiveness of the market comes from solid foundations such as rapid population aging as the elderly accounting for about 20% of the population, the middle class is forecast to reach more than 23.3 million people by 2030, along with increasing demand for high-quality healthcare services.
In addition, the private health sector has grown strongly and the State's opening policies continue to create favorable conditions for foreign capital flows.
Many major deals in recent times have contributed to putting Vietnam on the regional healthcare M&A map. A typical example is the deal of Thomson Medical Group buying FV Hospital for 381.4 million USD. This is one of the most valuable medical deals in Southeast Asia in 2023.
In the pharmaceutical sector, Livzon Group (China) plans to spend about 240 million USD to own nearly 65% of Imexpharm shares, while Dongwha Pharm (Korea) invested about 30 million USD to buy back 51% of Trung Son pharmacy chain, a large pharmaceutical distribution system in the Mekong Delta.
Despite many opportunities, M&A activities in the healthcare sector in Vietnam still face significant legal challenges. Accordingly, due to the unsynchronized legal framework, complicated administrative procedures, and specific requirements of the health sector, the appraisal and transfer of assets becomes difficult.
Associate Professor Nhu believes that M&A appraisal in the health sector is more complicated than many other fields because it involves a series of factors such as practice licenses, professional practice licenses, fire prevention and fighting standards, environment, key personnel, drug portfolio and regulations on health insurance.
In that context, Hima 2025 is organized to create an open forum for management agencies and businesses to exchange, remove obstacles and promote the completion of the legal framework for medical M&A activities.
Improving domestic medical equipment production and distribution capacity
Mr. Nguyen Toan Thang, Deputy Chief of the Office of the Ministry of Health, said that the goal of the Vietnamese health sector by 2030 is to continue expanding the scope of community health care programs, focusing on developing medical examination and treatment services, ensuring health security and improving the ability to respond to climate change as well as emergency situations.
Along with that, the health sector focuses on controlling risk factors for diseases, improving the capacity to manage the health environment and aiming to ensure fairness in medical examination and treatment to meet the increasing demand for health care of the people.
In parallel with that goal, hospital, pharmaceutical and medical equipment models are constantly being expanded and diversified to improve health care efficiency.
The health sector also promotes administrative procedure reform, transparency in management, licensing, and procurement of drugs and equipment.
Improving the capacity to produce and distribute domestic medical equipment and promoting international cooperation is considered an important solution to enhance the capacity of the health ecosystem.
International investment capital in the health sector has recently become increasingly interested in the Vietnamese market. In that context, M&A becomes a strategic tool to help the healthcare ecosystem develop faster, more sustainably and approach international standards.
However, this field requires high transparency, strict legal risk management procedures and professionalism in auditing, evaluating and operating. Only when these standards are standardized can businesses confidently participate in the investment, cooperation or IPO process.
The event is also an opportunity for domestic and foreign businesses and investors to meet, share experiences and expand cooperation, contributing to the formation of a community connecting M&A in the healthcare sector in Vietnam.
