China's monoclonal antibody industry growing but still lagging USA and Europe

China has been engaging in monoclonal antibody R&D for some time, but still lags far behind European and American countries in terms of industrialization, according to a new report added to the offering of Research and Markets. In 2010, the market for monoclonal antibody drugs in China was worth more than $340 million, while global sales in the same period hit the $44 billion level, the report noted.

Restricted by a high technical threshold and the need for huge capital investment only a few Chinese enterprises have realized industrialized production of monoclonal antibody drugs. Presently, there are around 10 monoclonal antibody drug manufacturers that have carried out clinical trials in China, but only a few - including Shanghai CP Guojian Pharmaceutical, Beijing Biotech Pharmaceutical, Chengdu Huasun Group and Shanghai Meien Biotechnology - have launched products into the market. As of May 2011, a total of 17 monoclonal antibody drugs were approved by China’s State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) and rolled out into the market, of which nearly 60% were the imported products.

Sector currently dominated by Roche and Merck cancer drugs