| By Grace Zhang, Asia Manufacturing Pharma |
| Friday, 27 June 2008 |
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Tetracycline from Chinese pharmaceutical enterprises had occupied nearly the entire international market by the early 1990s, having become one of the two Chinese major antibiotic APIs (the other is penicillin) leading in world sales. However, as an antibiotic of a previous generation, tetracycline was abandoned by the international market, pushed out by the emergence of the next-generation animal growth promoting agents, such as Tylosin and Ivermectin. These newer players are used as animal growth promoting agents rather than for clinical treatment in Europe and the USA. |
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However, as new uses for the drugs were discovered, tetracycline and its derivates, including Doxycycline, Minocycline, the newly introduced Tigecycline and Metastat, have again become the new best selling drugs in the international pharmaceutical market since 2005, bringing about a significant growth in the export of tetracycline from China. |
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According to recent data, export of China’s tetracycline has been increasing since the second half of 2004. Chinese exports of tetracycline APIs reached 13,285 tons in 2005, nearly the same level as that in the early 1990s. Growth in exports continued through 2006. In addition, the average price of the exported tetracycline has increased by over 46% in 2007, showing a strong demand for Chinese tetracycline APIs throughout overseas market.
China is this century’s world leader in the production capacity of tetracycline, especially in China’s western provinces, including Ningxia, Inner Mongolia and Shanxi, where several ten-thousand-ton tetracycline fermenting bases have already been established. Tetracycline is now mainly produced by a few large-sized companies in China, including Ningxia Qiyuan Pharmaceutical, North China Pharmaceutical Group and Sichuan Pharmaceutical, with an annual capacity of 10,000 tons, 5,000 tons and 3,000-4,000 tons respectively.
As an antibiotic drug, tetracycline is, for all practical purposes, no longer |
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used for clinical treatment in western countries, however, is still used in Chinese hospitals, where cephalosporin, macrolide antibiotics and fluoroquinolone antibiotics are still quite often prescribed. However, tetracycline still has its own potential market space in world markets.
According to Kalorama, a U.S.-based consulting firm, the global antibiotic market has already stepped out its off-peak period in recent years. Tetracycline is expected to continue to be a popular product in the international pharmaceutical market for the foreseeable future.
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