China accounts for 7%-10% of global CRO market output

China's pharmaceutical contract research organization (CRO) market developed much later compared to the industries in Europe and the USA; 40 years later. Currently, there are 500 domestic CRO players in China with the majority of these being classed as SMEs, notes a new report added to the offering of Companiesandmarkets.com.

In 2011, the CRO market in China was valued between 22 billion renminbi ($3.54 billion) and 28 billion renminbi 4.50 billion), although this only accounted for around between 7% and 10% of the total global CRO output.

There has been a race for foreign companies to start investing in China's CRO market due to the low cost, talent resource available and rich spectrum of diseases, the report says. Mergers and acquisition activity has been strong and renowned CRO companies such as Quintiles, Covance, PPD, CRL and ICON have all recently invested in China.