Do China has the final say in the market of generic drugs that are popular in China?

2013-05-13 source: china.com China is a big country of generic drugs, with the pharmaceutical market accounting for 10% of the global market, but the proportion of generic drugs used is as high as 80% In the domestic urban hospitals, drugstores, community hospitals, rural clinics and other medical and health terminal markets, there are a lot of generic drugs, while the original research drugs made in China are hard to find, and "life-saving drugs" are from foreign brands At present, "h7n9 avian influenza" is a high-frequency word appearing in the mainstream media at home and abroad, and the accompanying sub high frequency word is "Tamiflu" Tamiflu, produced by Roche in Switzerland, is recognized by the pharmaceutical industry as an effective drug for the treatment of h7n9 avian influenza, while the domestic therapeutic vaccine may not be available until seven months later For a long time to come, "Tamiflu" will still play an important role in the epidemic Whether it has the final say that the generic drugs are flooding the domestic market, or the position of Chinese medicine in the global industrial chain, or the embarrassing position of China's bulk drugs and Chinese medicines in the global pharmaceutical market, they have revealed a reality that hurts every individual China's medicine is calculated by foreigners China is a big country of generic drugs, whose market scale accounts for 10% of the world, but the proportion of generic drugs is as high as 80%, 70% higher than that of developed countries In the domestic urban hospitals, drugstores, community hospitals, rural clinics and other medical and health terminal markets, there are a lot of generic drugs, but the original research drugs made in China are hard to find In the high-end drug market, even the so-called "life-saving drugs" are from foreign brands For example, McAbs, which are famous for their strong targeting, small side effects and high efficacy, are playing an increasingly important role in the field of anti-tumor However, McAbs are mainly imported from Roche, Novartis, Merck, etc The prevalence of generic drugs is closely related to the low investment in domestic pharmaceutical research and development, the unsatisfactory domestic innovation environment, and the current situation that most enterprises are keen to meet the low-quality repeated profit seeking In 2011, the proportion of R & D investment in China was less than 1.5%, far lower than the average level of 10% in developed countries, and the proportion is still declining year by year It is reported that China will probably surpass Japan in 2016 and become the second largest pharmaceutical market after the United States China is a big producer and exporter of APIs in the world As the most internationalized API in China, its production capacity is more than 2 million tons, accounting for more than one fifth of the world For a long time, Apis have become the main export of Chinese medicine and health care products, accounting for 50% of the export amount But looking at the global pharmaceutical industry chain, the above bright figures can't whitewash the chronic malady of the development of China's pharmaceutical industry: low-end position in the global pharmaceutical industry chain, weak international bargaining power, products dominated by low value-added generic drugs, overcapacity, weak enterprise development capacity Developed countries have made great progress in pharmaceutical industry with solid R & D foundation, abundant development funds and sound national patent protection system At present, in the global pharmaceutical market competition pattern, developed countries such as Europe, America and Japan occupy 70% of the global pharmaceutical market, while other countries and regions including China only have 30% of the market In 2012, the largest export category of Chinese medicine and health care products was still API, with an export amount of US $22.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 3.2%, accounting for 47.7% of the total export and 82.5% of the export of Western medicine respectively; if medical device products are deducted, the export of API accounts for more than 75.6% In 2012, the export of vitamin C, vitamin E and 6-APA (6-aminopenicillanic acid), the traditional bulk APIs, as the main export force of APIs, increased in volume and decreased in price Its export volume in 2012 was 110000 tons, 42000 tons and 10000 tons in turn, which were higher than the export level in 2008, but the annual average export price showed a downward trend Because most domestic enterprises do not master the core technology, brand and network, most of the products are bulk APIs with low profitability Even in the face of environmental protection, raw materials, labor costs and other adverse factors, such as increasingly high export mainstream market supervision, we dare not increase prices If Chinese enterprises raise prices and foreign pharmaceutical enterprises control advanced technology, they can resume production once they see profits, which will restrain the price rise In fact, Chinese api companies mainly rely on running volume and sacrificing domestic environmental protection to gain world share The international market of traditional Chinese medicine belongs to the black market As the quintessence of China, traditional Chinese medicine has always been supported by national policies With the new medical reform entering the deep-water area and the industrial policy inclining to the grass-roots market, traditional Chinese medicine, which is good at protecting and treating common and chronic diseases, has been favored by the government, enterprises and the market Many provinces and cities have issued plans to expand the cause of traditional Chinese medicine In recent years, the voice of the industry for the legislation of traditional Chinese medicine is growing During the national "two sessions" held in March 2013, the Ministry of Health said that the draft law on traditional Chinese medicine has been listed in the legislative focus of the National People's Congress, and is expected to be introduced within this year to raise the cause of traditional Chinese medicine to a national level strategic level In 2012, the sales revenue of Chinese patent medicine and Chinese Herbal Pieces reached 407.9 billion yuan and 99 billion yuan respectively, accounting for 23.9% and 5.8% of the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, 29.7% in total, 0.3 percentage points higher than that of the chemical preparations which have been the first for a long time In 2003, the proportion of sales revenue of traditional Chinese medicine was 27.3%, which was 4.4% lower than that of chemical drugs In sharp contrast to domestic performance, traditional Chinese medicine has no legal status in the international market The main varieties of Chinese herbal medicine exported to the international market are low processing and low value-added Chinese herbal medicine (such as natural pigment products) and plant extract (such as ginseng extract), while the proportion of Chinese patent medicine with high technical content is relatively low In 2012, the export value of traditional Chinese medicine was US $2.5 billion, accounting for 6.9% of the total export value of medical and health products, among which plant extracts, traditional Chinese medicine and decoction pieces, Chinese patent medicine and health products accounted for 46.6%, 34.3%, 10.6% and 8.5% of the export value of traditional Chinese medicine respectively In developed countries, which occupy 70% of the global pharmaceutical market share, it is difficult to find traditional Chinese medicine with pharmaceutical treatment, which usually appears in the role of food additives and health care products For a long time, Japan and South Korea have imported a large number of Chinese herbal medicines from China, processed them twice, made them into Chinese patent medicines, and then entered the international market of Chinese herbal medicines and sold them back to China European and American countries will use the plant extracts imported from China for the production of plant drugs and food supplements, and obtain high profits from them In the trend of returning to nature, with the emergence of problems such as increasing medical costs and toxic and side effects of chemical drugs, the global plant drug market develops at a higher growth rate than the chemical drug market In 2006, the U.S Food and Drug Administration approved for the first time the first new plant prescription drug polyphenon? E tea polyphenol (trade name: veregen?, ingredient source: tea extract), which caused a great sensation in the world pharmaceutical industry at that time, especially in the Chinese pharmaceutical market In fact, the botanical drug originated from the research on the antimutagenic and anticancer effects of green tea catechins and their mechanism, which was started by academician Cheng Shujun of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in 1984 China lost its ownership of veregen? Proprietary drug due to lack of funds and insufficient mastery of market rules Although China is a big country of generic drugs, it does not mean that Chinese enterprises have no awareness of innovation and enthusiasm for developing original drugs, nor does it mean that the Chinese government does not encourage and support the development and manufacturing of innovative drugs At present, the major relevant policies that have been issued in China include the 12th Five Year Plan for the development of pharmaceutical industry, the outline of national medium and long term science and technology development plan (2006-2020), the 12th Five Year Plan for the development of national strategic emerging industries, and the 12th Five Year Plan for the development of biological industry, all of which involve encouraging pharmaceutical innovation The state also provides financial support to relevant enterprises In September 2012, Haizheng Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd announced that it has obtained the special fund support of RMB 50 million for protein biomedicine and vaccine development in 2012 In the future, driven by strong policy guidance, increased national investment, aging, urbanization and other factors, the scale of China's pharmaceutical market will expand year by year, and the role of China's pharmaceutical industry in the global industrial chain will gradually expand In terms of how to accelerate the development of China's pharmaceutical industry, in addition to actively promoting the national strategy, realizing the planned, step-by-step, step-by-step promotion of the upgrading of the pharmaceutical industry, and shortening the distance from the developed countries in Europe and the United States, the national and local governments must also do enough work in the talent system, approval system, bidding system, tax system, etc Only in this way can we really reverse the embarrassing situation of "the Chinese medicine, foreigners has the final say" (Xia qinganbang consults researcher of pharmaceutical industry)