High clinical demand and low market competition? Children's medicine may usher in explosive growth!

Author: Guo Yanyan

In recent years, the number of children in China and the number of hospital visits have continued to rise.

Although the market is improving, there are deficiencies in the varieties, dosage forms, specifications and standards of children's medicines, which cannot meet clinical needs

01China's children have a huge population base, and potential clinical needs are large

Children's medicines refer to special medicines used by minors under 14 years of age

Figure 1: Age composition of my country's population (unit: ten thousand people)

Source: The Seventh National Population Census, 2021.

In the "National Essential Medicines List (2012 Edition)", with regard to medicines for children, except for the national immunization program vaccines for all children, there is only one medicine for children, namely compound amino acid injections for children, in the chemical medicine section, and 9 in the Chinese patent medicine section.

Table 1: "National Essential Drugs List (2018 Edition)" Chemical Drugs and Biological Products-Pediatric Drugs

Source: Flint Creations compiled according to public information

Table 2: "National Essential Medicine List (2018 Edition)" Traditional Chinese Medicines-Pediatric Drugs

Source: Flint Creations compiled according to public information

It is undeniable that in recent years, the development of China's children's health industry has been actively improving, and the protection of children's medication has been continuously increased.

Facing the huge clinical demand for children’s drugs, the National Health Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the State Food and Drug Administration have jointly released three batches of 106 children’s drugs that encourage R&D and application, but most of them have no public R&D progress information.

02 Few special medicines for children, fewer special specifications, and fewer special dosage forms

The physiological metabolism of children is quite different from that of adults.

At present, due to the lack of special medicines for children, some children only reduce the dosage according to the adult dosage when taking medicines, and use adult medicines directly for children.

Fewer dosage forms for children are also one of the problems of children's medication

Industry insiders pointed out that pharmaceutical companies are more concerned about the investment in children's drug research and development, which restricts the development of children's drug use

03 Favorable policies are frequently issued, and the market prospects are good

Policy guarantees have promoted the development of children's medicines to a certain extent

Table 3: Policy documents related to children's medication

Source: Flint Creation, compiled according to public information, 2021.

It is foreseeable that under the guidance of policies, China's children's drug market will develop further

04 Suggestions

The development of children's medication should pay attention to the following 3 aspects:

1.

Enterprises should get in touch with the local government’s Development and Reform Commission, the Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, the Bureau of Science and Technology, the Bureau of Industry and Commerce and other departments to grasp the government’s industry development orientation and specific implementation policies, and actively lay out the development direction of children’s drugs encouraged by the policy, conduct R&D and production, and support Receive corresponding subsidies and rewards as the industry develops

2.
Carefully conduct research and development of children's drugs

Children's medication should fully consider the child's own physical and psychological immaturity.
Physically, it is necessary to strictly conduct research on the safety of the drug to prevent the toxic side effects of the drug from causing irreversible harm to children
.
Psychologically, research some suitable and flexible dosage forms or drug forms that are easy for children to accept
.
At the same time, it actively cooperates with database institutions to support the research and development of children's medicines with more comprehensive data sources
.

3.
Consider the peculiarities of children's medicines in many ways

Design the packaging of products that children love, develop dosage forms and tastes suitable for children to take, minimize the frequency of administration, increase the initiative of medication, and improve the compliance of children's medication
.