IQVIA remains committed to its positive view of the Chinese drug market. If recent trends continue, health expenditure in China is projected to grow 8.4% annually, from 5.3% of GDP in 2015 to 9.1% of GDP in 2035, according to the National Health Development Research Center. Besides, last year is to be remembered for a great leap forward made by China in terms of strengthening pharmaceutical IP protection following adoption of a new patent law that calls for establishment of patent linkage and patent term restoration mechanisms.ĭespite challenges, long-term prospects and opportunities of Chinese remain little changed.
On the drug regulatory front, the Chinese government made numerous major moves along with many new regulations to advance drug regulatory system reform throughout 2020 and early 2021. Central government agencies continued to introduce a host of new healthcare reform measures throughout 2020 – in the center is China’s relentless efforts to contain healthcare costs through measures including national level volume-based procurement (VBP) tender, new policies/experiments relating to BMI payment reform, management of BMI funds, and promotion of commercial health insurance. The healthcare reform has long been hijacked by cost containment and gone astray from the pledged path of improving efficiency and fixing structural flaws. Structural issues with the Chinese healthcare system continued to haunt the pharmaceutical industry in 20. A slew of MNCs, including Pfizer, Novartis, AstraZeneca, Sanofi, Roche, J&J, Bayer, Fresenius, Novo Nordisk, AbbVie and Takeda, showed their support to the Chinese government by pledging commitments to the country’s market and signing multiple deals at the Third China International Import Expo in November 2020, even as many of them, if not all, were experiencing huge setbacks with recent sales of their flagship off-patent originator brands in China. There has been a significant increase in diagnoses and jump in prescriptions on online healthcare platforms, and accelerated the adoption of AI in CT scans, algorithms for COVID-19 detection in genomic sequencing, and AI-based research platforms for vaccines.ĭomestic pharma players have increasingly turned to R&D for future growth as they boost fundraising to facilitate M&A, pipeline and expansion, while foreign companies continued to be blessed in 2020 with more new drug approvals, which understandably renewed their hope for the promised land. The COVID-19 pandemic prompted China's expedited foray into health technology.
The year over year change of hospital, retail pharmacy and primary healthcare markets (terminal 1, 2 and 3 markets) were -12.0%, +3.2% and -11.8% respectively in 2020, down from 4.2%, 5.0% and 8.5% in 2019. SMEI reported that the combined drug sales of three major Chinese terminal markets declined 8.5% in 2020 as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, reaching a total of CNY 1,643.7 billion, excluding private hospitals, clinics and village clinics, which are not covered. WiCON International Group LLC, the publisher of well-known WiCON | Pharma China (announced that its China Pharmaceutical Guide 2021 (16th Edition) is now officially published.Īccording to the publication, the pandemic also took its tolls on Chinese pharma in 2020. Metuchen, NJ Septem-( PR.com)- Chinese Pharma Growth Rebounds from the Pandemic amid Deepening Healthcare and Drug Regulatory Reform