As the world’s manufacturing hub, China has boost its pharmaceutical market over the past decade to become one of the fastest growing and most competitive markets. In a report by IQVIA, the global pharmaceutical market is expected to exceed US$ 1.5 trillion by the year 2023 with a 3 to 6 percent compound annual growth rate over the next few years. In 2018, pharmaceutical expenditure in China reached US$ 137 billion and has been projected to increase to US$ 140 to 170 billion by 2023.

The pharmaceutical industry in China is largely made up of companies engaging in the production of generic medicines, therapeutic medicines, active pharmaceutical ingredients, and traditional Chinese medicine. Trends in China’s pharmaceutical market will definitely see changes through the coming years, especially with the Chinese government’s changes to pharmaceutical regulations. In 2019, a second draft of the Drug Administration Law of the People’s Republic of China was submitted and approved by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China for consideration and discussion. Most noteworthy in the amended draft were that innovation of pharmaceuticals should be based on clinical value, domestic and imported drugs will have the same MAH (Market Authorisation Holder) system applied and subject to approval by the National Medical Products Administration, and digital sales of non-prescription pharmaceuticals can be established through third party portals registered with local drug administrations.

Regulatory changes in the pharmaceutical industry in China has seen its benefits from faster approval process of innovative drugs. These statistics have been increasing since 2017 from six approvals in 2016 to 41 in 2017. In other aspects of the pharmaceutical industry in China, the revenue has been forecasted to increase over the past decade up till the year 2020. The forecast of revenue in manufacturing of pharmaceutical production equipment is predicted to be US$ 2.75 billion in the year 2020. Biopharmaceutical manufacture revenue would also see an increase in operating revenue to US$ 41 billion in 2020, together with Chinese medicine production revenue of US$ 101 billion in 2020. These forecasts of rise in operating revenue in China’s pharmaceutical industry is bolstered by the Chinese government’s commitment in switching from an industry follower to an innovator.

Traditional Chinese Medicine is another focus of the Chinese government in its pharmaceutical market. Since the implementation of the Outline of the Strategic Plan on the Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Chinese government has set a roadmap to make development of traditional Chinese medicine as part of its national strategy, the Healthy China 2030 initiative. An example of such is the research of honeysuckle decoction as a potential treatment for the COVID-19 disease by the Nanjing University, Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Second Hospital of Nanjing.

The pharmaceutical retail market in China has also seen steady growth throughout the years. A report by Deloitte, highlighted that China’s pharmaceutical retail market had a compound annual growth of about 8 percent from 2015 to 2019. Which was much higher by comparison to the global pharmaceutical market of 6.1 percent annual growth. Key players in the increase in China’s pharmaceutical retail market were the accessibility of retail drugs, growth of total pharmacy visits, and an increase of expenditure per visit.

The report also shared how changes in policies by the Chinese government will help to boost the access to drugs in the pharmaceutical retail market. This was particularly necessary during the COVID-19 outbreak as traditional methods of obtaining drugs could not be carried out due to lockdown measures implemented. With changes in policies and the new adjustment by the recent global pandemic, the report by Deloitte remains optimistic in China’s pharmaceutical retail market. It is expected to have a high growth rate until 2023 as strategies and channels for access to drugs shift to more digital platforms.

The year 2020 has proven to be one of the most challenging across a number of industries. Particularly in the pharmaceutical, biomedical, and healthcare industries, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that was known to have started in late 2019. China was one of the early epicentres of the novel coronavirus disease which started from its first confirmed case in the city of Wuhan, Hubei Province. Measures were quickly rolled out to contain the COVID-19 disease, but its spread across other countries remained inevitable despite the Chinese government imposing lockdowns on various affected cities. Working with healthcare frontlines and researchers to understand the outbreak led to the successful fall in number of daily cases from more than 6,000 in February 2020 to a stable less than 50 daily cases from April to September 2020.

Even as the year 2020 draws towards its final quarter, the COVID-19 pandemic still continues to be a clear and present danger in many countries. Healthcare supply companies as well as private and public research institutions in affected countries battle against time to accelerate the vaccine and drug development process to stop the spread of COVID-19 a the worldwide death toll continues to climb to close to one million victims. Pharmaceutical companies in China are no exception with some big players announcing promising COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial results being released.

Sinovac Biotech, announced recently in September 2020 it will begin analysis of phase 3 clinical trials for obtaining regulatory approval and as said by Yin Weidong, CEO of SinoVac, he hopes to have the COVID-19 vaccine ready for worldwide distribution by early 2021. Since July 2020, SinoVac has also obtained approval for emergency use by the Chinese government of its novel coronavirus vaccine, CoronaVac. Other Chinese pharmaceutical and biomedical companies have also joined in the race for a vaccine against COVID-19. Sinopharm is currently at phase 3 of testing a second inactivated virus vaccine that was developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products. Phase 3 trials of this vaccine were launched in the United Arab Emirates and Argentina, where the government gave approval for the experimental vaccines to be used on many people. Drug development against COVID-19 has also seen to accelerate at unprecedented speeds.

With regulatory changes by the Chinese government, the promising growth of the retail market, and the unexpected push by the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 will see these trends contribute to a greater extent in the continued growth of China’s pharmaceutical industry.

References:

https://www2.deloitte.com/cn/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/pr-industry-transformation-new-opportunities-pharmaceutical-companies.html#

https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/cn/Documents/life-sciences-health-care/deloitte-cn-lshc-four-transformation-pharmaceutical-retail-market-en-200609.pdf

https://www.statista.com/chart/19017/innovative-drug-approvals-in-china/

https://www.statista.com/forecasts/414789/china-pharma-production-equipment-manufacture-operating-revenue-forecast-icnea-3544

https://www.statista.com/forecasts/414634/china-biopharmaceutical-manufacture-operating-revenue-forecast-icnea-2760

https://www.statista.com/forecasts/414639/china-chinese-medicine-production-operating-revenue-forecast-icnea-2740

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200210005340/en/Growth-Insights-on-Chinas-Pharmaceutical-Industry-2020-to-2025---Key-Market-Trends-Supporting-the-Expansion-of-the-Chinese-Pharmaceutical-Industry---ResearchAndMarkets.com

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-09-25/Sinovac-expects-interim-data-on-COVID-19-vaccine-final-trial-soon-U4lNtdFxxm/index.html

https://www.iqvia.com/insights/the-iqvia-institute/reports/the-global-use-of-medicine-in-2019-and-outlook-to-2023

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/chinese-company-coronavirus-vaccine-ready-early-2021-73217428

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-05-scientists-china-drug-pandemic-vaccine.html

About the Author:

Deborah Seah is a contributing writer for a column on PharmaSources.com, Discovering Biotechnology. The column explores innovative technologies in the world of biotech and evaluates its impact on our future. She is also an editor for a monthly science and technology magazine, Asia-Pacific Biotech News.
Prior to her career in writing she worked as a research associate at a plant genetics laboratory of a multinational agriculture company. Following that she also had experience in a medical diagnostics start-up as a medical technologist. "