KUALA LUMPUR — The International Healthcare Week (IHW) 2025 opened Wednesday at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Center.
Described as the region’s most comprehensive health care gathering, the event runs until July 18 and brings together health care professionals, officials and exhibitors from across Southeast Asia.
It features eight exhibition halls and trade shows, highlighting breakthroughs in pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, hospital systems, medical technology and digital health.
“We worked closely with partners from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. This show isn’t just Malaysia’s — it’s the result of collaboration across Asean. We saw that having five separate shows in five countries every year was becoming difficult for the health care industry. So the idea was to bring them together, not dilute them, but align them in one comprehensive platform,” said Rungphech Chitanuwat, regional portfolio director at Informa Markets and project leader for IHW, during a press briefing.
Chitanuwat noted that Informa typically stages more than 450 global events annually and has handled major exhibitions across Southeast Asia. The five brands under IHW — including CPHI South East Asia, WHX Kuala Lumpur, WHX Labs, Medtec Southeast Asia and HIMSS APAC — were previously run separately but are now integrated under one program to reduce industry fatigue and encourage deeper regional engagement.
This year’s exhibition space covers 26,000 square meters across multiple floors, with around 900 exhibitors showcasing health products, lab innovations, artificial intelligence technologies and manufacturing components.
Chitanuwat mentioned that the footprint had to be extended to accommodate last-minute demand, though organizers remain cautious about attendance figures due to travel and economic uncertainties.
During the briefing, she also touched on Malaysia’s growing role in regional health tech.
“Malaysia claimed leadership in medical technology recently, with over 30 multinationals operating here. So we launched Medtec here as a response to that trend,” she said, noting active engagement from Philippine government officials and economic zones, citing early discussions on health care collaboration and digital systems interoperability.
Digital transformation emerged as a recurring theme, with one of the event’s newest segments — Informa Exchange — focusing on hospital digitization, cybersecurity and health data governance.
“We’re now looking at how Malaysia and Singapore are leading in hospital digitalization, and how the rest of the region can catch up,” Chitanuwat added.
Ministerial roundtables and digital health panels are scheduled in the coming days, along with buyer programs aimed at fostering regional trade links. Delegations from Asean member states, as well as exhibitors from China, India and Europe, are expected to take part in both formal sessions and private sector dealmaking.
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