Sales of medicines in China are forecast to reach $14 billion by 2005 and $24 billion by 2010, at which point China will be the fifth-largest medicine market in the world after the USA, Japan, Germany and France.
Basic pharmaceuticals are the mainstay of the industry in China. China is now the world's second-largest producer of basic medicines, and the largest producer and exporter country of penicillin, beta-lactam and vitamins.
Chinese output of basic pharmaceuticals reached 562,000 units in 2002, an annual rise of 11 per cent, and made up 22 per cent of global sales. Exports in this sector increased by 28% to $2.99 billion, and accounted for 52 per cent of China's total pharmaceutical exports.
Demand for propanoic acid in China already outstrips supply, and is set to increase considerably. Current production capacity is around 1,000 t/y, but actual output is only about 200 t/y. Increasing production of vitamin B6 and drugs such as naproxen and tolperisone will require an increase in either domestic production or imports of propanoic acid.
Chinese production capacity for gamma-butyrolactone is increasing by around 10 per cent annually. More than 20 companies in China now produce a total of 16,000 t/y of gamma-butyrolactone, but domestic demand is around 18,000 t/y. The markets for 1,4-butylene glycol and butanoic anhydride are also developing fast.
Gamma-butyrolactone can be used to treat prostate cancer. The growth in demand for this drug reflects the way the pharmaceutical market is changing as China's population ages. Drugs for prostate hyperplasia, a disease mainly of older men, made up more than 70% of the pharmaceutical market in the genito-urinary sector over the last three years.
Though this percentage is decreasing, total sales of treatments for prostate hyperplasia are increasing rapidly. For instance, sales in the Beijing area grew by 37 per cent in the period 2000-2002. In the same period, total sales of drugs for genito-urinary conditions grew by 43 per cent (excluding alpha-blockers such as terazosin and prazosin), while average growth for all pharmaceuticals was 17 per cent.
Demand for other common medicines against age-related conditions, including antivirals and antibacterials, and drugs to treat conditions of the bile duct, metabolism, circulatory system, tumours and the immune system, will also increase.
China is the world's largest producer of penicillin and the second-largest producer of vitamin C, for which it supplies about 30 per cent of the international market.
Demand for vitamin B12 in China has grown fast in recent years. As late as the 1980s demand was only 200 kg/y, but it has now reached 1,200 kg/y and is growing at more than 10 per cent annually.
Consumption has increased as vitamin B12 has become an accepted part of basic medical care in China. Thanks in part to its availability in over-the-counter multivitamins, more than 90 per cent of the population in many large Chinese cities now take vitamin B12 as a supplement.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) offers around 2,000 kinds of herbal medicine and 3,300 other traditional remedies. The citizens of developed countries are increasingly discovering benefits in a "natural" approach to medicine, while 60% of Asians already use herbal medicines. As a result, world demand for herbal and other natural medicines increases daily.
Experts predict that demand for traditional medicines in African and Arabian countries will increase by 10-20% annually for the next 5-10 years, and that sales in these countries will reach $10 - 20 billion. On the same reckoning, global sales of traditional medicines will reach $200 - 300 billion.
The next 40 years is therefore a key period for China to expand its production of traditional medicines and to promote them across the world. China currently has just 5% of the global market in traditional medicines, and the target is to increase this share to 15% by the end of the 10th Five-Year Plan in 2005. Aiding this growth are the current efforts to standardise and rationalise the systems used to classify and prepare TCM.
Exports in this sector increased by 28% to $2.99 billion, and accounted for 52 per cent of China's total pharmaceutical exports.
Demand for propanoic acid in China already outstrips supply, and is set to increase considerably. Current production capacity is around 1,000 t/y, but actual output is only about 200 t/y. Increasing production of vitamin B6 and drugs such as naproxen and tolperisone will require an increase in either domestic production or imports of propanoic acid.
Chinese production capacity for gamma-butyrolactone is increasing by around 10 per cent annually. More than 20 companies in China now produce a total of 16,000 t/y of gamma-butyrolactone, but domestic demand is around 18,000 t/y. The markets for 1,4-butylene glycol and butanoic anhydride are also developing fast.
Gamma-butyrolactone can be used to treat prostate cancer. The growth in demand for this drug reflects the way the pharmaceutical market is changing as China's population ages. Drugs for prostate hyperplasia, a disease mainly of older men, made up more than 70% of the pharmaceutical market in the genito-urinary sector over the last three years.
Though this percentage is decreasing, total sales of treatments for prostate hyperplasia are increasing rapidly. For instance, sales in the Beijing area grew by 37 per cent in the period 2000-2002. In the same period, total sales of drugs for genito-urinary conditions grew by 43 per cent (excluding alpha-blockers such as terazosin and prazosin), while average growth for all pharmaceuticals was 17 per cent.
Demand for other common medicines against age-related conditions, including antivirals and antibacterials, and drugs to treat conditions of the bile duct, metabolism, circulatory system, tumours and the immune system, will also increase.
China is the world's largest producer of penicillin and the second-largest producer of vitamin C, for which it supplies about 30 per cent of the international market.
Demand for vitamin B12 in China has grown fast in recent years. As late as the 1980s demand was only 200 kg/y, but it has now reached 1,200 kg/y and is growing at more than 10 per cent annually.
Consumption has increased as vitamin B12 has become an accepted part of basic medical care in China. Thanks in part to its availability in over-the-counter multivitamins, more than 90 per cent of the population in many large Chinese cities now take vitamin B12 as a supplement.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) offers around 2,000 kinds of herbal medicine and 3,300 other traditional remedies. The citizens of developed countries are increasingly discovering benefits in a "natural" approach to medicine, while 60% of Asians already use herbal medicines. As a result, world demand for herbal and other natural medicines increases daily.