China's Increasing Export Orientation

Zheng Xiaoyu, director-general of China's State Administration of Medicines, has said that China's pharmaceutical industry is increasingly opening up to the outside world, particularly in terms of its exports, reports China Foreign Trade. At end-1995, China's drug industry had 1,500 foreign-funded joint ventures, with foreign funding in the sector exceeding $2.5 billion.

15 of the world's top 20 drug companies have a presence in China, while the sales value of foreign-funded pharmaceutical joint ventures accounted for 13% of the total Chinese drug industry last year.