CHINA HEALTH SCIENCES NEWSLETTER
Vol. 3 , No.17 - July 11, 2002
TOPICS THIS ISSUE:
- China to Enforce Import Regulations
- New Medicine Research Urged
- Shanghai to Sponsor International Exhibition
- Taiwan sends Kidney Transplant Candidates on Tours to China
- Chinese Pharmaceutical Enterprises Show Slower Profit Growth
- Major Traditional Medicine Base Set-up in China's Nanjing
China to Enforce Import Regulations
Fearing social unrest, China is trying to shield its farm sector from the changes expected from its World Trade Organization membership with regulatory import barriers for genetically modified agricultural products.
Jikun Huang, director of the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, said recent regulatory barriers to genetically modified agricultural imports are partially an attempt to shield China's farm sector from the impact of WTO entry. Nevertheless, by making biotechnology a health issue, China's policy-makers may be unwittingly setting up a consumer backlash against the modified crop strains that previously promised to provide China with greater security for its farm sector.
China's Ministry of Agriculture and the Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine issued new safety regulations in January that have threatened to disrupt soybean imports from the United States valued at US $1 billion a year.
Western biotech companies previously viewed China as a more receptive market compared to some western nations, where activists have denounced transgenic products as "Frankenfood."
China, a country accustomed to periods of famine, at first appeared eager to embrace new biotechnology that promised to improve crop yields and protect harvests from pests and drought. However, Huang said the possibility of a post-WTO flood of lower-priced, better genetically modified soybeans and maize displacing domestically produced varieties from China's northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning has panicked policy-makers.
Nevertheless, the government has invested heavily in China's domestic agricultural biotechnology industry. China devoted 9.2% of its 1999 national crop research budget to biotech research, up from 1.2% in 1986 and well above the 2 to 5% range of developed countries.
That funding has helped produce a bumper crop of 141 genetically modified plants - including cotton, rice, wheat, soybean and tobacco - that have either been approved for field trials, environmental release or commercialization.
(Source: Associated Press Online)
New Medicine Research Urged
China's pharmaceutical industry should invest more in developing new medicines and to improving its skill in deep processing, an industry expert said.
Chinese manufacturers invest little in research and development, explained Qiao Haili, head of the Western Medicine Department with the chamber of commerce. Chinese pharmaceutical enterprises invest an average of 2% of their annual sales volume in developing new medicines, compared with overseas companies' 15%. Qiao added that it takes on average of US $500 million and 10 years to develop a new medicine. Domestic manufacturers should take a long-term view and invest more in research and development, he said.
Mr. Qiao also urged domestic manufacturers to strengthen their deep-processing capabilities and not to be satisfied in remaining large producers of pharmaceutical ingredients. Qiao said that producing new medicines was much more profitable than producing pharmaceutical ingredients.
According to the chamber of commerce, China produced 430,000 tons of pharmaceutical ingredients last year. Of this, 389,000 tons were exported, accounting for 22% of the global market share.
China is already capable of producing about 1,500 types of pharmaceutical ingredients. It is now the world's second-largest producer of pharmaceutical ingredients after the United States.
A big problem hindering the industry's development is that manufacturers do not own the property rights of what they produce. According to the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Medicine & Health Product Importers and Exporters, the country can produce more than 4,000 types of medicine of which, approximately 99% are versions of patent medicines developed by others.
Only 70 new medicines were developed by domestic manufacturers last year, accounting for 3% of all new medicines approved by the State that year.
However, large-scale production of pharmaceutical ingredients as well as low production costs are the advantages of the Chinese pharmaceutical industry, according to Zhang Changxin, deputy director of the chamber of commerce.
Mr. Zhang added, that there are problems in the industry such as enterprises' small production scale, production of low added value products and the cutthroat competition among manufacturers but said that the industry should make full use of its advantages and improve itself.
(Source: China Daily)
Shanghai to Sponsor International Exhibition
Shanghai will hold its annual International Pharmaceutical Exhibition as well as the International Crude Drugs and Intermediates Exhibition at the Shanghai Everbright Conference and Exhibition Center in November this year.
The exhibition is aimed at promoting exchange among China's pharmaceutical enterprises as well as exploring developments and trends in the pharmaceutical industry after China's accession to the WTO. Enterprises from Germany, Italy, the United States, France, Belgium, Denmark, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan are expected to attend the exhibition.
On show will be new pharmaceutical products and technology, new and specific drugs, health products and bio-products.
(Source: Xinhua)
Taiwan sends Kidney Transplant Candidates on Tours to China
Taiwan is sending candidates for kidney transplants on "kidney-changing tours" to Chinese hospitals, a Taipei newspaper recently reported.
Taiwan is currently suffering from a shortage of donated kidneys. United Daily News said many Taiwan kidney patients, tired of receiving dialysis and waiting for a donated kidney, join such tours at a cost of about 1 million Taiwan dollars (US $29,000). "The charge includes plane tickets, hotel accommodation and the kidneys," the newspaper reported.
The tours last approximately 20 days and the kidney transplants are usually carried out in hospitals in Guilin or Shanghai.
"What is special about this tour is that a Taiwan doctor escorts the tour. During the kidney transplant operation, the Taiwan doctor remains in the operation room so that the Taiwan patient feels safe." Individuals who have participated in the tours have spoken highly of the tours because "the Chinese doctors conduct careful anti- rejection tests before the transplant," the paper said.
The paper did not mention the source of the mainland kidneys. However, some have accused China of removing the kidneys of executed prisoners' to be transplanted into Chinese officials and overseas Chinese patients.
(Source: Deutsche Presse-Agentur)
Chinese Pharmaceutical Enterprises Show Slower Profit Growth
China's twenty-four major pharmaceutical enterprises have reported a slight increase in production and better sales in the first five months of this year, according to the State Economic and Trade Commission.
Statistics show that the gross output value of these enterprises came to RMB 37.32 billion (US $4.51 billion) in the period. Revenues from core businesses totaled RMB 33.65 billion, up 12.8%, 3.3% higher than for the same period last year but 0.2% less than in January-April.
The sales/production ratio was 93.9%, 1.4% points higher than for the same time last year.
The goods delivered for export were valued at RMB 2.37 billion, an increase of 23.4% over the same period last year and 10.5% higher than in the first four months.
(Source: Asia Pulse)
Major Traditional Medicine Base Set-up in China's Nanjing
A new facility for the productions of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been established in the Nanjing Economic Development Zone in Jiangsu Province, east China. The Nanjing Jinling Pharmaceutical Works, a member of the Jinling Pharmaceutical Corporation, built the 130,000-square-meter facility costing in excess of RMB 200 million.
Equipped with advanced production lines and equipment imported from Germany, the facility has an annual production capacity of 300 million liquid injections, 500 million tablets and 500 million capsules, which is expected to generate RMB 200 million (US $24.18 million).
The Jinling Pharmaceutical Corporation is a listed company, with subsidiaries located in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian and Yunnan provinces.
(Source: Asia Pulse)
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