Booming Chinese pharmaceutical market set to overtake Japan by 2014

China has significantly increased the volume of domestic pharmaceutical production for the first half of the current year. During the period from January to July 2011 the value of the Chinese pharmaceutical industry amounted to 802.4 billion renminbi (about $126 billion), which is 29.6% more than in the same period of 2010.

According to the Chinese State Department for Control of Food and Drugs, the expansion continues in the second half of 2011 and there is a possibility that cumulative growth rates for 2011 may reach 35% compared to 2010.

Such growth rates are part of the strategy currently implemented by the Chinese Ministry of Health, according to which during the next several years China is expected to become one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical markets. Assuming such growth rates are maintained, by 2014 China will overtake Japan and will become the world's second largest pharmaceutical market, behind only the USA.