Stronger pharmaceutical intermediates

“The prospects for the development of pharmaceutical intermediates in China are still promising.” This is the information that the reporter learned from the experts at the second seminar on pharmaceutical intermediates R&D progress and market prospects held in 2006.
Recently, experts including Wang Pushan from the SFDA Information Center, Professor Liao Qingjiang from the China Pharmaceutical University, and Deputy Director Tao Jianhong from the SFDA Institute of Southern Medicine and Economics, and professionals from more than 70 domestic pharmaceutical intermediate industries participated in the seminar.
Expert View 1: As the market became stronger, experts disclosed an encouraging group of data: From January to December 2005, the total output value of China's chemical raw material pharmaceutical industry reached 116.727 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 33.51%; the profit amounted to 6.78 billion yuan. , an increase of 27.5% year-on-year; especially export value reached US$7.903 billion, an increase of 27.55% over the same period of the previous year.
From these economic indicators, the pharmaceutical industry still maintains a significant growth. Experts believe that the prospects of the pharmaceutical market are promising and will certainly promote the strengthening of upstream pharmaceutical intermediates.
Under normal circumstances, most of the intermediates needed for pharmaceutical production were originally produced by pharmaceutical companies. However, in recent years, with the deepening of the social division of labor and the advancement of production technology, the production of some pharmaceutical intermediates has been gradually separated from the production of pharmaceutical companies and transferred to the production of chemical companies. From an international perspective, pharmaceutical intermediates have become a major industry in the international chemical industry.
In China, pharmaceutical intermediate manufacturing companies are mostly private companies, and the scale of investment is small, basically between millions to 12 million yuan. As the profits of pharmaceutical intermediates are higher than those of general chemical products, the production process is basically the same, so more and more small chemical companies have joined the ranks of pharmaceutical intermediates; the profit rate of intermediate production is lower than that of raw materials. The production process of APIs and intermediates is similar. Therefore, some companies not only produce intermediates, but also begin to extend to APIs.
After more than 30 years of development, the chemical raw materials and intermediates required for pharmaceutical production in China can basically be matched, only a small part needs to be imported, and due to the abundant resources in our country and the low prices of raw materials, many intermediates have achieved large amounts of exports.
Relative to APIs and preparations, the export of pharmaceutical intermediates is much less restricted by the importing countries, and in recent years, many large US and European pharmaceutical companies have considered their pharmaceutical intermediates from the perspective of saving production costs and environmental protection requirements. The production is gradually being transferred to developing countries, or more reliable pharmaceutical intermediates are imported from developing countries. This has brought excellent business opportunities to pharmaceutical intermediate manufacturers in China. Experts believe that due to years of accumulated technical advantages and huge demand for the future pharmaceutical market, China's pharmaceutical intermediate industry has great potential for development.
However, it is worth noting that, as the country attaches greater importance to environmental protection, environmental protection costs will be a problem that cannot be ignored for the intermediate production industry.
Expert opinion 2: Choosing the most advantageous varieties In China's pharmaceutical intermediate product chain, the intermediate products of the intermediate and upstream basic raw material medicines have occupied a dominant position in the entire chain due to their wider application fields, and have therefore achieved relatively rapid development. The market is highly regarded.
However, China's exports of pharmaceutical intermediates have also been pressured from other countries, especially India. India's rapid rise in the pharmaceutical industry has now formed a competitive and symbiotic relationship with China. Facts have proved that in the major export regions of pharmaceutical intermediates in China, the EU, North America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, the impact from India can not be overlooked.
Therefore, China's pharmaceutical intermediates industry must adjust its export strategy. Experts believe that choosing a competitive intermediate variety will be an effective breakthrough.
In terms of specific varieties, commodities such as sulfonamides, tetracyclines, and metasynthetic anesthetics are species that have gone out earlier in China. With the passage of time, the pharmaceutical intermediates in our country have developed rapidly, and we can see our advantages from the current major production and sales share of some varieties. For example, VC, penicillin, acetamidophenol, acetaminophen, citric acid, etc. accounted for more than 60% of the global share, amoxicillin, ceftriaxone,
Ibuprofen, aspirin, etc. are all influential product types in the world.
In terms of product classification, anti-infective drugs, vitamins, antipyretic analgesics, amino acids, etc. are China's export-oriented APIs, which account for more than 90% of all APIs' exports, and the corresponding domestic demand for intermediates is also relatively large.
Experts also reminded relevant pharmaceutical intermediate manufacturers: As the situation changes, the research and production of pharmaceutical intermediates must also be adjusted. Experts believe that changes in the disease spectrum will create new areas in the pharmaceutical market, and the corresponding pharmaceutical intermediates will also change, thus bringing new opportunities. At the seminar, experts speculated that the diseases with the highest incidence in 2010 were mental illness, menopause, erectile dysfunction, obesity, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, cancer, chronic sinusitis, migraine, diabetes, and senile diseases. Fatal infections, etc., this will surely usher in an increase in the demand for related drug intermediates.
Expert opinion 3: The export structure should be upgraded Experts also pointed out that although China's pharmaceutical intermediates industry is facing a strong trend, but we must also see that in the pharmaceutical industry's pyramid-shaped value arrangement, the profits of pharmaceutical intermediates are at the bottom of the tower. Even lower than bulk APIs.
In fact, China’s pharmaceutical intermediate industry itself also has “shortcomings” such as low value-added products, lack of proprietary intellectual property products, poor establishment of export channels, insufficient information support, and inadequate use of information resources. On the other hand, the international market competitiveness has been threatened by the external factors such as the increase in prices of hydropower coal and chemical raw materials, the increase in environmental protection costs, and the reduction in the export tax rebate rate for some pharmaceutical products.
Experts pointed out that domestic pharmaceutical intermediate manufacturing companies lack experience in grasping the international market, and lack systematic research on the trading country (regional) pharmaceutical market, policies, and trade rules. As a result, the overall quality of intermediate exports is not high. Therefore, experts have suggested that the export structure of domestic intermediates must be changed, and that the industry itself and the production software must be strengthened urgently, and efforts must be made to build a number of companies and products that have certifications such as cGMP, FDA, E/DMF, and COS.
Expert opinion 4: Accelerate the formation of core competitiveness Experts pointed out that even for companies with relatively good profits, how to form core competitiveness, establish their own brands, and enhance technological digestion and innovation should also be considered. In the long run, the domestic pharmaceutical intermediates industry must develop in this direction and accelerate the formation of its core competitiveness.
At present, most domestic companies have lost interest in “Big Road” and both believe that even if the market improves, the profit level will not be too high. Therefore, all kinds of so-called characteristic raw material medicines will be highly sought after, and companies will not hesitate to invest heavily in investment. Conversion. However, it is worth rethinking that the demand for specialty APIs is relatively limited. Once the market supply surges and the prices fluctuate greatly, the operational risk borne by the intermediate production companies will be enormous. Therefore, what companies need to do is not to follow the blind pursuit of short-term interests, but to seek to maintain the core competitiveness of corporate profits “evergreen”.
However, although the main force in the production and export of domestic intermediates is large-scale state-owned enterprises, private and foreign-funded enterprises have also experienced rapid growth in recent years. However, as a whole, most intermediate production enterprises are small and medium-sized enterprises, their strength is limited, and the industry is highly competitive. But in an unordered state.
The reporter was informed at the meeting that at present, some foreign pharmaceutical intermediate manufacturing companies have been actively implementing the development plan for entering China. Despite the different product positioning, it is believed that this will add even more pressure to domestic large and small pharmaceutical intermediate companies. It's time to think about how to practice the bones.