Chinese pharma market becoming increasingly attractive to Japanese

Asian countries are rapidly developing healthcare insurance, clinical trials and patent-rights protection infrastructure.

A recent estimate published in Japan stated that China's pharma market was worth nearly ¥l.75 trillion in 2005, and although this represents slightly less than 3% of the global market, it is growing at 12-15% annually.

The survey also estimated that the overall pharma market in Asia, including India, South Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia, will equal that of Japan in five years.

Leading Japanese pharma companies are therefore expanding operations in China and Southeast Asia to compensate for slow domestic growth. A major reason is the Japanese government's plans to reduce the mandated price of prescription drugs under the national health insurance programme.

Daiichi Sankyo plans to market hypertension treatment Olmesartan in China in mid-year, through a subsidiary's production and marketing unit in Shanghai. Daiichin Sankyo already sells an antihyperlipidemia drug and other mainline products, and aims to double China sales to ¥3bn in fiscal 2007.

In April Kyowa Hakko will complete construction of a plant in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, for the local production in 2007 of its core cardiovascular agent, Coniel. The company plans also to produce its own products, including treatments for allergies and Parkinson's disease.

Meanwhile, Kirin Brewery is to market a renal anaemia drug this year through local agents in the ASEAN countries except Burma, with the aim of achieving sales of ¥5bn for 2006, up 10% from 2005. And Eisai is launching full-scale production in China of an Alzheimer's disease treatment.