Beazley targets life sciences sector in Asia Pacific

Specialist insurer  Beazley has bolstered its life sciences offering in Asia Pacific with the launch of a new suite of covers in the region.

Beazley claims its offering is designed to provide organisations with holistic coverage that avoids unnecessary gaps in their insurance cover, in an environment where risk exposures are complex and varied, from the release of unsafe medical devices and medicines, to negligence in human testing, through to the mismanagement of clinical trials and drug discovery.

The cover includes products liability, professional indemnity, public liability, medical malpractice, clinical research services – negligent act, error or omission, and clinical trials – no-fault compensation & legal liability.

The launch builds on Beazley’s experience in writing life sciences risks globally for more than 20 years. It is led by underwriters and claims specialists with a deep understanding of the risk landscape to ensure the offering is flexible and tailored to the needs of the sector.

The policy has been designed to be clearly worded and intuitive to use, which health, wellness and life sciences professionals based in Asia have highlighted as a key priority, according to recent research by Beazley.

With the new specialist cover, Beazley is targeting medical device manufacturers, contract research organisations, biotechnology & biologics, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals (including cosmetics and skincare), prescription & over the counter injectables/ topicals and oral drugs, and pharmaceutical support services, clinical trials, vaccines and testing laboratories.

“The life sciences sector across Asia has been growing significantly in recent years and has already overtaken EU in terms of size," said Prashansa Daga, healthcare underwriter at Beazley. "Asia Pacific is now the second largest market in terms of size after the US. Covid-19 has also exposed the need for self-reliance amongst different countries in the region as we saw closing of borders, restriction on movement of pharmaceutical ingredients and the global vaccine scramble."

He added: "The response to Covid-19 has also fuelled a race to create tests, vaccines and treatments. As an industry driven by intrinsic innovation and inelastic demand for patient needs, life sciences is expected to see significant growth in years to come. Our policy provides clear, broad and flexible cover for a range of risks to help this diverse sector to manage its risk exposures and continue to expand and thrive.”

Evan Smith (pictured), global head of miscellaneous medical & life sciences at Beazley, added: “We’ve been writing life sciences risks at Beazley for over two decades and today, we have a well-established book in North America and the UK, and as demand has grown internationally we are taking our lessons-learned and are tailoring policies for new territories. Clients and brokers will be well supported by our technically skilled team of underwriting and claims specialists based in Singapore.”

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