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In mid-November， German drug giant Bayer AG said it would invest 100 million euros （$104 million） to double its drug packaging capacity in Beijing， creating the largest such Bayer plant in the world. Two weeks earlier， Germany’s Merck Group agreed to invest 170 million euros in a drug factory in Nantong， Jiangsu province. By 2021， it will be Merck’s largest facility outside Europe， producing 10 billion pills a year.
The same month， Switzerland’s Roche started construction of an 863 million yuan （$124 million） research center in Shanghai that will be the largest research and development center built by a multinational drug company in China. According to the R&D-Based Pharmaceutical Association Committee， as of December， 38 multinational pharmaceutical com- panies have opened 49 plants and 30 research and development centers across China.
The world’s biggest drugmakers are racing to get in on the world’s fastest-growing health-care market. China’s demand for pharmaceuticals has climbed by more than 10% annually over the past several years as the global market slowed. By 2020， China will overtake the U.S. as the largest pharmaceutical market on the planet， accounting for 7.5% of global sales， according to the consulting company IMS Health.
“China is still the largest and fastest-growing market that no company can give up，” said a source from a foreign pharmaceutical company.“So the multinationals have to compromise” on prices.
China is an increasingly important contributor to sales of global drugmakers. Major companies， including Bayer， Novartis International AG， Pfizer Inc. and Johnson & Johnson， reported 2015 sales growth of more than 15% in China， higher than it was in other markets. Bayer’s sales in the China region reached 4.5 billion euros in 2015， the most among Asian markets. Roche and Merck & Co. of the U.S. in 2015 reported sales growth in China while global demand fell.
The investment rush comes as regulators step up pressure to cut drug prices while encouraging the development of the domestic pharmaceutical industry. Foreign drugmakers have enjoyed easy profits for years thanks to patent protection and rising demand among Chinese consumers for brand-name drugs.
The National Health and Family Planning Commission has been demanding since 2015 that multinationals lower prices on drugs for major ailments， including cancer. At the same time， some local authori- ties have set limits on the amount of money that public hospitals can spend on drugs from multinationals.
The same month， Switzerland’s Roche started construction of an 863 million yuan （$124 million） research center in Shanghai that will be the largest research and development center built by a multinational drug company in China. According to the R&D-Based Pharmaceutical Association Committee， as of December， 38 multinational pharmaceutical com- panies have opened 49 plants and 30 research and development centers across China.
The world’s biggest drugmakers are racing to get in on the world’s fastest-growing health-care market. China’s demand for pharmaceuticals has climbed by more than 10% annually over the past several years as the global market slowed. By 2020， China will overtake the U.S. as the largest pharmaceutical market on the planet， accounting for 7.5% of global sales， according to the consulting company IMS Health.
“China is still the largest and fastest-growing market that no company can give up，” said a source from a foreign pharmaceutical company.“So the multinationals have to compromise” on prices.
China is an increasingly important contributor to sales of global drugmakers. Major companies， including Bayer， Novartis International AG， Pfizer Inc. and Johnson & Johnson， reported 2015 sales growth of more than 15% in China， higher than it was in other markets. Bayer’s sales in the China region reached 4.5 billion euros in 2015， the most among Asian markets. Roche and Merck & Co. of the U.S. in 2015 reported sales growth in China while global demand fell.
The investment rush comes as regulators step up pressure to cut drug prices while encouraging the development of the domestic pharmaceutical industry. Foreign drugmakers have enjoyed easy profits for years thanks to patent protection and rising demand among Chinese consumers for brand-name drugs.
The National Health and Family Planning Commission has been demanding since 2015 that multinationals lower prices on drugs for major ailments， including cancer. At the same time， some local authori- ties have set limits on the amount of money that public hospitals can spend on drugs from multinationals.