The Sunday Times, I think, had a story recently about high staff turnover in the Irish Pharma industry and how difficult it was to get replacement staff. This might imply that it's easy to get into the industry but the work is too boring/hard/repetitive that people leave asap.
Ive no evidence for this but I would think you'd have a hard time getting into the Pharma industry considering your age and non-science background. The Pharma industry, esp the regulated side, can be very boring. I knew one guy with a MSc in chemistry and his job was doing 'dissolution tests' on tablets. Basically, he'd drop a tablet into 'water' and time long it took to dissolve. Repeat. Repeat for the rest of your life.
Have you thought about 'supply chain management' or the logistics side of things. It's not industry-specific and you could sell yourself to an employer as someone who worked their way up from the ground floor.
And there's bound to be a need for English-speaking logistics people in SE Asia?