Future Growth Drivers & Obstacles Of The Chinese Pharmaceutical Outsourcing Industry

By Jim Zhang, Jiawen Shen, and Qunjie Man, Life Science Leader magazine

Starting from almost scratch, the Chinese pharmaceutical outsourcing industry has grown markedly fast in recent years. The industry has successfully achieved an average annual growth rate of 48% in the past eight years and reached a market value of $1.42 billion in 2008.

At present, it is composed of nearly 250 professional service providers, including about 50 multinational service companies that have facilities in China. Moreover, growing numbers of traditional Chinese pharma companies and R&D-oriented biotech companies also have joined the outsourcing industry as “part-time” service providers, as they are frequently approached by drug companies from all over the world for collaborations.