China's pharmaceutical industry witnessed good development momentum in the first half of 2005, with profits and sales concentrated in large enterprises.

Jiangsu Province in east China is leading the pharmaceutical industry with a profit of 2.947 billion yuan in the first half. China's Shandong Province registered 24.665 billion yuan (US$3 billion) in sales value in the period, ranking first in the country, surging by 49.81%, 8 percentage points higher than in the first quarter. Its profit jumped by 55.37%, 11 percentage points more than in the first quarter. The sales and profits in Jiangsu, Shandong and Zhejiang provinces each accounted for at least 10% of the total in the country, while the top 15 provinces monopolized 85.01% of the sales and profits.

The top 100 enterprises generated a combined sales revenue of 93.63 billion yuan in the first six months, 47.4% of the industry's total. The Shanghai Pharmaceutical (Group) Co Ltd (SPGC) recorded the biggest sales of 10.38 billion yuan, followed by Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Holdings Ltd (GPC) with 7.2 billion yuan.

The 28 crude chemical drug enterprises raked in a combined 26.7 billion yuan in sales revenue, occupying 28.5% of the top 100s total; 26 chemical drugs and preparations manufacturers registered 19.22 billion yuan, 20.53% of the total; 29 Chinese patent medicines producers, 1.9 billion yuan, 23.4% of the total; 4 biomedicine enterprises, 2.96 billion yuan; 7 medical apparatus makers, 3.33 billion yuan; and the rest including SPGC and GPC acquired a combined 17.934 billion yuan.

Ten state-owned enterprises achieved 13.546 billion yuan in sales revenue; 54 joint stock enterprises generated 61.3 billion yuan; 29 Hong Kong, Macau and foreign-funded enterprises, 15.17 billion yuan; and six other types of enterprises, 3.24 billion yuan.

Joint stock companies took up 51.72% of the sales revenue from chemical drugs and preparations, ranking first in the country, and Hong Kong, Macau and foreign-funded companies accounted for 45.67%, ranking 2nd. The sales revenue of crude chemical drugs mainly came from joint stock and state-owned companies, accounting for 48.45% and 45.99%, respectively.

Joint stock companies in biomedicine clinched 77.91% of the total sales revenue, foreign-funded companies occupied 74.71% of the medical apparatus industry, and joint stock companies accounted for 73.09% of the Chinese patent medicines industry.

About 57.85% of the Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and foreign-funded companies listed among the top 100 were engaged in the chemical drugs and preparations business, 7.45% in the crude chemical drugs sector, 16.38% in the medical apparatus sector and 14.28% in the Chinese patent medicines sector.

Meanwhile, joint stock companies took up 26.13% of the Chinese patent medicines sector, 21.12% in the crude chemical drugs sector and 16.23% in the chemical drugs and preparations sector, respectively. Some 90.68% of the state-owned companies gathered in the crude medical drugs sector.

The top 100 profit-earning enterprises registered 9.33 billion yuan of profit in the first half of the year, 55% of the industry's total, with the Yangtze Pharmaceutical Group ranking first with 469 million yuan profit in H1.

The chemical drugs and preparations industry realized a top profit of 3.13 billion yuan, followed by the Chinese patent medicines industry and crude chemical drugs sector, with 2.38 billion yuan and 1.879 billion yuan, respectively. The first three sectors made up 79.26% of the total profit of the top 100 firms. About 34.48% of the profits in the medical apparatus sector came from the top 100 enterprises, while the proportion in the biomedicine sector was 47.7%.

The top 100 enterprises involved 35 chemical drugs and apparatus producers, 21 of which came from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and foreign countries; 21 crude chemical drugs producers, including 9 joint stock companies, 5 Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and foreign-funded companies and 6 state-owned ones; 24 Chinese patent medicines enterprises, including 16 joints stock companies, 4 Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and foreign-funded companies, one state-owned one, one collectively-owned company, and two of other types; 9 biomedicine enterprises, including 5 joint stock companies; and 5 medical apparatus manufacturers, all from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and foreign countries.

Among the top 100 profitable enterprises located in 24 provinces, the profit of those from Jiangsu ranked first, with 1.586 billion yuan, 17% of the total; while the proportion was more than 10% in Zhejiang and Shandong, respectively, and around 8% in Beijing, Guangdong and Shanghai. The total profit in the six provinces accounted for 62.42% of the total. Among the top 100, 26.7% of the profit of Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and foreign-funded companies came from Jiangsu, 9.11% from Shanghai, 9.53% from Beijing, 11.24% from Guangdong and 10.29% from Shandong.

13.45% of the profit of joint stock companies came from Jiangsu and 8% from Shandong, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Beijing, Shanghai and Heilongjiang. Jiangsu Province earned 37.59% of the total profit in the chemical drugs and preparations sectors; Zhejiang and Heilongjiang registered a growth of 23.75% and 19.33%, respectively, in the crude chemical drugs sector; Shandong created the biggest profit in the biomedicine sector, 35% of the total. The profit for medical apparatus makers was concentrated in Jiangsu, Guangdong and Beijing; and that for Chinese patent medicines was concentrated in Beijing, Guangdong, Jilin and Shandong.

In terms of sales revenue, Shanghai ranked first with a growth of 13.36%, followed by Shangdong (13.18%), Jiangsu (12.06%), Guangdong (11.12%) and Zhejiang (10.12%). Jiangsu took up the top 38.79% of the market shares in term of chemical drugs and preparations. The income of crude chemical drugs mainly came from Shandong, Hebei and Heilongjiang, each accounting for 23.58%, 19.08% and 16.87%, respectively.

Enterprises in Zhejiang Province clinched 62.44% of the sales revenue in the biomedicine sector, while that of Beijing, Jiangsu, Liaoning and Shandong were the main sources of the sales for medical apparatus industry, and Chongqing, Jiangxi and Tianjin were the sources of patent Chinese medicines.