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China to become world's largest OTC market
Updated: 2005-12-02 09:15
China will become the world's largest OTC (Over the Counter medicine) market
by the middle of the century, said experts at the ongoing 2005 China OTC
Consumer Healthcare Summit here Thursday.
"With its robust growth, China is going to be the largest OTC market in the
world by mid-21st century," Nicholas Hall, CEO of Nicholas Hall & Company
(NHC), one of the world's leading consultancies in the OTC market, made the
remarks in the southwest municipality of Chongqing.
Statistics from NHC have shown that the China's OTC market ranks the fourth
largest in 2005, with a total asset of 4.2 billion US dollars, only after the
United States, Japan and Germany.
However, the growth rate of China's OTC market has reached 11.2 percent this
year, much faster than that of the countries with bigger OTC markets.
"Actually Japan, Germany and France have all registered negative growth rate
in 2005. China is expected to rank the third largest in five years and the
second in ten years," said Nicholas Hall.
According to Chris Snook, President of Novartis OTC in the Asia Pacific
region, local companies have bright future in market expansion, whose growth
relies largely on the vast rural market.
However, Chris also suggested that in order to maintain sustainable
development, domestic companies should multiply their product lines.
Novartis OTC is one of the largest OTC drug manufacturers in the world.
The summit is held on the sideline of the 54th China National Pharmaceuticals
Fair, which runs from December 1 to 3, with wide participation of drug producers
both at home and from aboard. Enditem
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