China's bulk drug companies are facing a heavy transformation

According to public statistics, the total demand of vitamin C in the world in 2010 was 120,000 tons. The capacity of the top five Chinese manufacturers is enough to meet the demand. The national production capacity in 2012 is expected to exceed 200,000 tons.

China's raw material production has been stable for more than a decade in the world's "largest exporter" of raw materials such as penicillin, but today, even with the largest shipments and capacity reserves in the global market, "transition" has become a "golden age". After the death, the most pressing issue of survival.

Burst of foam

A country-level raw material drug investigation is in full swing.

On January 18, the former State Food and Drug Administration announced that it officially started to conduct a thorough investigation on the export of APIs. This will be the first time that the national API industry will start to include the common name of the APIs and pharmaceuticals. Written approval numbers, major exporting countries or regions, and whether they have obtained certificates for the production quality management practices of EU member states.

At this time, as the world's largest producer of vitamin C APIs, four Chinese vitamin C manufacturing companies, including North China Pharmaceuticals and Jiangshan Pharmaceuticals, are in the United States accepting antitrust charges allegedly governing the US vitamin C market price. Two months later, this eight-year lawsuit will result in a final judgment of one billion U.S. dollars for four Chinese companies, and will be the first time that Chinese pharmaceutical companies have been subject to penalties in antitrust litigation in the United States.

"You can feel that the "hostility" of Chinese APIs in the international market has started to increase," said the person in charge of the above-mentioned company told this reporter. "They think that we are producing too much, selling too cheaply, and the companies are still between each other Continuing to keep prices down, so there are also such cases of vitamin C."

According to public information, more than 50% of China's production of chemical raw material drugs is supplied to the international market. At present, there are more than 1,500 kinds of APIs that can be produced, and more than 60 kinds of APIs have a large market share in the international market. Due to the relatively low barriers to entry for bulk APIs such as penicillin and vitamins, and the lack of scientific capacity plans for some companies, the “double counter” surveys that China’s API industry has encountered in the international market have become more frequent.

Data from the Medicare Chamber of Commerce showed that in 2011 alone, Chinese traditional medicines such as penicillin potassium salt, 6-APA, glycine, paracetamol, amoxicillin, and coenzyme Q10, etc., were successively encountered from India, the United States, the European Union, and Mexico. Trade surveys with Japan, etc. In March 2012, China's ibuprofen raw materials were applied for anti-dumping investigations initiated by Indian companies.

“Over the past three years, investigations into international trade in Chinese APIs have continued to increase.” Yesterday, Xu Ming, vice chairman of the China Chamber of Commerce for the Import and Export of Pharmaceutical Health Products (hereinafter referred to as the “Medical Insurance Association”), said in an interview with reporters: The difference is that, from the developed countries of the previous years to the developing countries now, the scope of countries that have launched anti-dumping investigations against us has gradually expanded."

Heavy turning

“The irrational short-term behavior of many companies, the serious surplus of production capacity caused by blind expansion, and the low-cost dumping have jointly led to the current status of China's raw material pharmaceutical industry. Industrial planning and export order are urgently needed to be further adjusted,” said Xu Ming.

And pushing forward for a few years, even in the golden period of pharmaceutical raw material drug development, the most notable example is penicillin industrial salt. The global demand is about 50,000 tons every year. Under the condition of serious excess production capacity, pharmaceutical raw materials are Price wars are frequent, such as the fall in the price of 7ACA (a spirulina antibiotic intermediate) that falls below the $110 per kilogram loss line to $70.

“Everybody knows that we have to make a transition now, but where do we turn and how do we go? The actual situation of each individual is not the same, especially if the single product is a raw material drug company with overcapacity, it is relatively difficult.” The Western Medicine Department of the Medicare Chamber of Commerce The director was honored to tell this reporter yesterday.

In our country's old-brand raw material base in Zhejiang Province, Huahai Pharmaceuticals' owners attacked the export of pharmaceutical preparations, and Hisun Pharmaceutical joined forces with foreign funds to seek innovative drugs. Haixiang Pharmaceuticals chose to break through from the foundry in the early days of its establishment.

“The original production line and technology could not be thrown away again. No one can afford it. For the old company, it is particularly burdensome. It can only be considered from the original varieties to see if it can extend its development.” The aforementioned large-scale API company The person in charge told the reporter.

Even if transformation and upgrading face many challenges, many pharmaceutical companies are still making unremitting efforts. The above-mentioned industry sources told the reporter that Shandong Xinhua, a veteran company, was taken as an example. Because these years have passed quality standards improvement, it has become a supplier to multinational pharmaceutical companies. The quality and reputation of its products have been continuously improved, and at the same time, sales teams have been built in markets such as Europe and the United States. After the drug substance, slowly open the international preparation channel.

On May 9th, at the special news conference of “Foreign Trade Structure Adjustment” of the Ministry of Commerce, Meng Dongping, vice president of the Medical Insurance Business Association, introduced the way of import and export of medicines and health products, and revealed that at the current stage, the diagnosis and treatment of Western medicine and hospitals in China The increase in exports of high value-added products such as equipment is significantly higher than that of raw materials, and the proportion of total exports is greatly increased. However, the transformation and upgrading of China's pharmaceutical foreign trade industry still faces many challenges and can be completed within a short period of time. Related parties need to jointly promote solutions.