Analysis of the operation of China's pharmaceutical industry from January to November last year

With the gradual recovery of the world economy, China’s macroeconomic situation has been steadily growing. The cumulative GDP growth in the first three quarters was 10.6%, laying a good foundation for achieving the full-year expected target. At the same time, due to the rigid demand characteristics of medical products and the new medical reform policies, the pharmaceutical economy has maintained a steady and rapid development.

According to the monitoring data of the “China Pharmaceutical Economic Operational Analysis System” of the Institute of Pharmacy and Economics of the South, the general operating conditions of the pharmaceutical industry from January to November 2010 are as follows:

From the perspective of development of major sub-sectors, from January to November 2010, the total output value of the chemical raw material pharmaceutical industry reached 215.726 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 26.09%, and the growth rate has rebounded by 23.48 percentage points from the same period in 2009;

The total output value of the biopharmaceutical industry reached 117.9 billion yuan, an increase of 30.99%, which was 3.51 percentage points higher than the overall level of the pharmaceutical industry and 13.34 percentage points higher than the level of the same period in 2009.

The growth rate of the total output value of Chinese patent medicines and traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces was higher than that in the same period of 2009, which increased by 9.18 and 9.27 percentage points respectively.

The total output value of the chemical preparation industry reached 318.979 billion yuan, an increase of 26.99%, a slight increase from the same period last year. The growth rate of the gross output value of medical devices and sanitary materials industry was lower than that of the same period of 2009.

From January to November 2010, the overall production and sales rate of the pharmaceutical industry was 94.30%, a year-on-year decrease of 0.93%.

In the past year, the rate of production and sales of the pharmaceutical industry in China was affected by changes in the macroeconomic environment, showing a wave dynamic trend, which fell from 95.27% in January-February 2010 to 94.40% in January-August, 1-11. In the month, the overall production and sales rate of the pharmaceutical industry was 94.30%, a decrease of 0.93 percentage points from the same period of 2009 and a decrease of 0.1 percentage points from the previous quarter.

From January to November 2010, the accumulated industrial sales revenue reached 1,066.6 billion yuan.

From the perspective of major sub-sectors, from January to November 2010, the growth rate of sales revenue of the chemical raw material pharmaceutical industry (23.45%) was still the lowest among the seven sub-sectors, which was lower than the overall level of the national pharmaceutical industry by 2.65 percentage points. The growth rate of chemical preparations, proprietary Chinese medicines, and medical device sub-industries are also lower than the overall level.

The increase in sales revenue of Chinese Herbal Pieces industry was the highest, reaching 40.44%, followed by the biologics industry, which was 30.55%. Except that the growth rate of sanitary materials was 1.12 percentage points lower than that of the same period of 2009, all other sub-sectors increased. Among them, the growth rate of TCM decoction pieces increased by 14.87 percentage points. The growth rate of chemical raw material drugs was higher than the year-on-year increase due to the lower base in 2009. 8.41 percentage points.

From January to November 2010, the national pharmaceutical industry sales margin was 10.40%, an increase of 0.11 percentage points year-on-year. The profit margins of the sales of chemical raw material medicines, proprietary Chinese medicines, and medical device industries decreased by 0.24, 0.25, and 0.56 percentage points, respectively, compared with the same period in 2009; the sales margin of the chemical preparation industry was 11.50%, an increase of 0.38 percentage points from the same period of last year. The sales profit rate of the biopharmaceutical industry is the highest in the seven sub-sectors. From January to November of this year, it reached 14.49%, which is 0.67% higher than the same period of 2009, and is close to the average profit margin of 15% of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies. This reflects the high returns of the biomedical industry.