China's western medicine imports up 21 pct in 2010
Shanghai. February 22. INTERFAX-CHINA - China's western medicine imports were worth $12.44 billion in 2010, up 20.53 percent year-on-year, according to a Feb. 21 report of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import Export of Medicines Health Products.
The average price of imported active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) grew 2.97 percent, while biological drugs were up 1,484 percent, according to the chamber. However, the average price of imported chemical drugs declined 8.12 percent.
The chamber attributed the high growth in imported biological drugs to market demand, noting that declining price of imported chemical drugs was due to the low prices of APIs and sharp competition from domestically-produced low-priced generic drugs.
Approximately 39.03 percent of imported western medicines came from European countries, down by 17.01 percentage points from the previous year. Imported western drugs from other Asian countries, Latin American countries and African countries grew 7.6, 4.39 and 2.36 percentage points, respectively.
The high price of drugs in developed countries drove China's companies to import more drugs from emerging markets, according to the report.
- KZ