Pharmaceutical, Medicine and Healthcare market in China

There has been a shift in focus of Pharmaceutical companies in emerging markets and China is considered to be the market with the best potential. In the bric group and other emerging markets China is the largest by sales volume. With growth fairly flat in more established markets the Bric's Countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are becoming key growth markets of large and medium sized Pharmaceutical, Medicine and Healthcare companies. Emerging markets and particularly the more establish Bric market are seen as the engine room for growth across the world for the Pharmaceutical, Medicine and Healthcare industry. The Bric countries had constant growth of over 10% over the last 5 years and this growth will continue in 2011 and beyond.

There are many challenges for the pharmaceutical industry in doing business in China and companies need to keep in mind that China is a marketplace very different then their traditional western  markets. The key challenge is that the balance of products has to be different, there is a demand for new high priced medicines but the main demand will come from generic products .With the challenge of Emerging Pharmaceutical markets like China BricPartner see's Companies take a broader perspective on their product ranges looking not just at their patented products but their heritage brands as well.  Pharmaceutical and Medicine companies need to focus on the Heritage brands that might of lost exclusivity but still carry a strong Global Brand Awareness.

New health reforms and price regulation across China will have a big impact on the international  Pharmaceutical Industry and how companies access the China market. One of the key aspects of health care reform in China is to expand coverage in terms of the population access to  Pharmaceutical and Healthcare products. The urban population of China has quite good access to Pharmaceutical and Healthcare products but in the rural population access is still poor. The urban population of China is growing rapidly but even so the majority still live in China's rural areas. Pharmaceutical, Medicine and Healthcare companies need to focus on the broader population of China as over half a Billion people live outside the Urban areas so this still represents Hugh potential and over 7% of the world's population.  As Governments and national authorities take more responsibility for Healthcare coverage across China this will create larger purchasing power for them and therefore more downward pressure on prices. With this downward pressure on prices companies will be better off focusing on their Heritage brands which still have good global brand recognition and healthy profit margins for the Pharmaceutical, Medicine and Healthcare companies.

To summarize BricPartner feels that for any company to achieve success in China they need to widen their coverage across the whole of the population and have a more systematic approach to their pricing with a view to minimizing additional costs.