June 29, 2014
Corresponding authors: Hao Hu haohu@umac.mo - Yi-Tao Wang ytwang@umac.mo
State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine
Health Research Policy and Systems 2014, 12:27 doi:10.1186/1478-4505-12-27
Background
In recent years, China has experienced a rapid growth in its pharmaceutical industry. In 2012, the pharmaceutical market in China increased by 12% to reach about 154 billion USD, and is expected to reach $383 billion by 2020 [1], making China one of the largest pharmaceutical markets globally. Meanwhile, a shift to more advanced pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) has started out in China recently. The Chinese government is dedicated to making more considerable investments in new drug R&D. Typically, in the 12thFive-Year Plan, the Key Drug Innovation Program initiated by the government will receive 10,000 million Chinese Yuan (CNY) (about 1,653 million USD according to the exchange rate of 6.05 at the end of 2013) from the central government and 30,000 million CNY (about 4,959 million USD) from local governments [2]. Private investors are also motivated to invest huge funding into pharmaceutical R&D. As a result, R&D investment in the Chinese pharmaceutical industry has sharply increased [3].
However, studies regarding the different behaviors of public and private investment in pharmaceutical R&D are scarce. Since China is such a large emerging country, funding source distribution in different provinces might vary widely, as well as in different subsectors. Further, as an industry significantly driven by private venture funds, the current status of private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) in Chinese pharmaceutical R&D investment also remains unclear.
Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the current situation of public funding and private investment in the Chinese pharmaceutical R&D. In particular, an exploration of public funding and private investment in different provinces and subsectors can help us to observe the diverse preferences of public and private investment in pharmaceutical R&D, to better understand government guidance for the Chinese pharmaceutical industry, and to identify investment opportunities and patterns in different regions and subsectors.
The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.health-policy-systems.com/content/12/1/27
Image source: www.rte.ie/news/business/2013/0621/457964-pharma-investment-cork/
