Analysis on the future market of medical and health plant extracts

The United States is the world's largest consumer market for healthcare products and the world's largest demand country for raw materials products The huge industrial demand requires us enterprises to continuously import raw materials from all over the world, including plant-based raw materials For a long time, the United States has been one of the main target markets for the export of Chinese traditional medicine products Since 2001, China's import and export trade of traditional Chinese medicine products has maintained a relatively stable growth The import and export volume has increased from 640 million US dollars (1 US dollar about 6.14 yuan) in 2001 to 3.37 billion US dollars in 2012 Among them, the export volume of traditional Chinese medicine products has increased from 460 million US dollars in 2001 to 2.5 billion US dollars in 2012, with an average annual growth rate of 16.6%, which is relatively stable In the global scope, more and more emerging markets begin to accept and use traditional Chinese medicine, which means that the influence of traditional Chinese medicine in China is further expanding However, the steady development of China's international trade in traditional Chinese medicine is still inseparable from the promotion of traditional markets such as Europe, North America and Asia Among them, the stable growth of the world's largest pharmaceutical consumer market, the U.S market, is indispensable From 2001 to 2012, China's import and export trade of traditional Chinese medicine products to the United States grew steadily, and the volume of import and export increased from US $100 million in 2001 to US $420 million in 2012 Among them, the export volume of Chinese traditional medicine products to the United States has increased from US $70 million in 2001 to US $350 million in 2012, with an average annual growth rate of 15.3%; while the import volume has increased from US $30 million to US $70 million, with an average annual growth rate of only 8.2% The export growth rate is significantly higher than the import From the perspective of export volume alone, from 2001 to 2012, the United States ranked third in the export market of Chinese traditional medicine products Although the emergence of the U.S financial crisis in 2008 has affected the export of Chinese traditional medicine products to the U.S to a certain extent, and the growth rate has slowed down, but from the data of 2011-2012, the import and export trade has seen a recovery growth with strong momentum From the perspective of product structure, China's exports of traditional Chinese medicine products to the United States are mainly plant extracts, health care products, traditional Chinese medicine and decoction pieces and other raw materials, with the export volume accounting for about 95%; while the proportion of traditional Chinese medicine products is relatively small, about 4% - 6% Among them, plant extract is the main product category of China's export to the United States, which accounts for more than 60% of the total export volume, and the United States has always ranked the first in the export market of China's plant extract products Taking the data of 2012 as an example, the largest export of Chinese herbal medicines to the United States is plant extracts, with an export volume of US $250 million, accounting for 73.1%; the export volume of health products is US $58.312 million, accounting for 16.8%, ranking second; the export volume of Chinese herbal medicines and decoction pieces is US $18.797 million, accounting for 5.4%, ranking third; the export volume of Chinese patent medicines is US $16.306 million, accounting for only 4.7% From the perspective of enterprise composition, from 2001 to 2012, the number of enterprises participating in the export trade of traditional Chinese medicine to the United States has increased from about 500 in 2001 to nearly 631 in 2012 Among them, the number of private enterprises (up nearly six times, to 439) and the market share (up five times, to 50.1%) have increased year by year, the number of state-owned enterprises (down 72.6%, now 97) and the share (down 82.0%, only 12.6%) have continued to decline, while the number of three capital enterprises has only increased slightly (up 9.5%, to 93), accounting for 1.9 times (37.3%) On the whole, the state-owned enterprises once occupied more than 70% of the market share, which has been shared equally by private enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises I believe that in the future, with the further enhancement of domestic private enterprises' R & D and marketing capabilities, their market share is expected to further expand The advantages and disadvantages of dietary supplements are that the market of herbal dietary supplements in the United States has a large scale, and the plant extract products in China have become an important source of raw materials in the U.S supplement market For some varieties (such as green tea plant extract, Ginkgo biloba plant extract and other products), China occupies the advantages of resources, costs and so on According to the relevant laws and regulations of the United States, dietary supplements cannot be reimbursed in the national medical insurance of the United States, but the market access threshold of health products in the United States is low and the market space is large In the long run, the United States is still an ideal export target market for Chinese traditional medicine products, and the market capacity is expected to maintain stable growth In addition, traditional Chinese medicine companies can also choose to sell their products as dietary supplements in the United States It should be noted that in recent years, the choice of herbal dietary supplements by American people is more rational Therefore, enterprises should actively understand the market demand and have a specific target in order to make great achievements in the American market From the perspective of the American market, the raw material enterprises in China can not only obtain a lot of profits, but also have no complicated procedures such as registration and approval from the operational level when they sell traditional Chinese medicine products in the form of dietary supplement raw materials in the United States At present, it is a better choice However, it is not a long-term plan for pharmaceutical enterprises to sell Chinese patent medicine products approved by Chinese pharmaceutical administration departments in the name of "dietary supplements" in the United States for a long time Most of the traditional Chinese medicine products exported from China to the United States are used as raw materials for dietary supplements, and the product application channels are relatively simple Therefore, we can compare the export volume of Chinese traditional medicine to the United States with the sales volume of herbal dietary supplements in the United States, and analyze the contribution of Chinese export products in the American dietary supplement industry Data analysis shows that the proportion of Chinese herbal medicine products exported to the United States in 2001-2011 has increased from 1.7% in 2001 to 5.2% in 2011 However, it is not difficult to see from the data that Chinese enterprises only assume the role of raw material suppliers in the industrial chain, and more added value brought by dietary supplement products are enjoyed by American pharmaceutical enterprises Therefore, to speed up the pace of entering the field of preparations will be the inevitable choice for Chinese traditional medicine enterprises to seek long-term development in the United States On the whole, the American market is of great significance to the international development of Chinese traditional medicine products According to the current development characteristics of Chinese traditional medicine export enterprises to the United States, the market operation mode, which is dominated by raw material products and targeted at the dietary supplement market, will still exist for quite a long time Among them, the development of plant extract industry will become the main force of international trade of Chinese traditional medicine industry to the United States in the future The transformation from the production of plant extract raw materials to the production of plant extract preparation will also bring more development space for enterprises In addition, it is still a long way to go to further study the drug registration laws and regulations in the United States, and to make Chinese medicine really occupy a place in the mainstream drug market in the United States through the registration of botanical drugs However, many phenomena show that it is no longer a difficult dream for Chinese medicine to be registered as a "drug" and recognized in the United States We hope to see more powerful Chinese enterprises in the field of FDA registration of traditional Chinese medicine Raw material enterprises sell traditional Chinese medicine products in the United States in the form of dietary supplement raw materials, which is still a better choice at present, while the Chinese patent medicine products of pharmaceutical enterprises have long been sold in the United States in the name of "dietary supplement".