China Expects $19 Billion Pharma Output By 2000

Director-general of China's State Administration of Medicines Zheng Xiaoyu has told the China Foreign Trade Journal that at the end of the current decade China's pharmaceutical industry will have an annual output value of 160 billion renminbi ($19.28 billion), with annual imports and exports worth $6 billion, rising by 10% a year.

He added that, in 1994, Chinese pharmaceutical companies supplied products for export to foreign trading companies worth 12 billion renminbi, which is an increase of 50% on 1993.

On the participation of foreign companies in China's pharmaceutical industry, the official said that the principle of setting up new companies is that they develop new products, have new production techniques and are export-oriented. This emphasis on producing new products is a result of fierce competition on the international drugs market, and Mr Xiaoyu called for efforts to be made to support new products with new funds. In addition, sales of quality products produced by state enterprises should be increased.