China: OTC Entry Strategies To 2000

Mick Maroney, General Manager, Nicholas Hall Reports

In the past five years, and most notably since 1992, the interests of the international pharmaceutical industry and of the government of the People's Republic of China have coincided, if for somewhat different reasons. The pharmaceutical industry sees China as the next great investment opportunity, offering the possibility of further expansion of its interests outside the markets of North America, Europe and Japan. The Chinese government sees the global pharmaceutical industry as instrumental in achieving an advanced health care system in China, and in the further development of a domestic industry with ambitions to extend its market beyond Chinese borders.

Since Deng Xiaoping became leader in 1978, China has undergone a profound social and economic revolution, still ongoing, which is destined to create a so-called socialist-capitalist economy by the end of the century. A population of 1.2 billion now enjoys a standard of living several times greater than that of previous generations, based on the returns from economic expansion that has led to a dramatic increase in China's national wealth. Much of this wealth is in the hands of the population as a whole, which is reported to have access to a significant amount of disposable income.