| By Cindy Wu, Asia Manufacturing Pharma |
| Wednesday, 16 September 2009 |
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China’s medical sector witnessed rapid growth in production, sales and economic benefits as well as investment in the first half of this
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year, while exports slowed due to the impact of the global economic downturn, according to statistics from the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
The sector posted a year-on-year increase of 17.8 percent in total industrial output to RMB477 billion (US$70 billion) in the first half. Industrial added value increased 14 percent, seven percentage points higher than the national average. Industrial output for chemical active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and chemical-pharmaceutical preparations increased 6.8 percent and 20.8 percent to RMB91 billion (US$13 billion) and RMB139 billion (US$20 billion), respectively.
The sector realized a year-on-year increase of 18 percent in industrial |
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sales value to RMB452 billion (US$66 billion) in the first half, with chemical APIs and chemical-pharmaceutical preparations up 7.1 percent and 18.8 percent to RMB86 billion (US$13 billion) and RMB131 billion (US$19 billion), respectively.
However, the country’s medical sector is facing with a number of difficult challenges. Medical exports are facing greater pressures due to the impact of the financial crisis, with a decline in overseas orders value. Impacted by international markets, the increase in output and benefits of the chemical APIs, the largest part of the country’s medical exports, slowed down significantly. In addition, the sector is confronted with greater pressures from environmental protection regulations.
Insiders are confident about the outlook for the second half. Driven by the country’s deeper medical reform, the demand from the domestic market is forecast to remain strong, and the sector is expected to continue to see rapid |
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growth. Output growth rate for the year is expected to be around 20 percent and increase in benefits 15 percent to 20 percent. The expanding domestic market provides a favorable external environment for the continued rapid growth of the country’s medical sector.
Despite the economic downturn, the global medical market is expected to continue to grow driven by the rigid demand for medicines.
As a result, demand for China-made medicines is not expected to fall by much, and the country is expected to see positive growth in medical exports for the whole year.
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