Operation Of Pharmaceutical Industry in The First Half Of 2023-China

The pharmaceutical industry in the first half of 2023 witnessed a decline in its main economic indicators. This downturn was primarily attributed to factors such as a decrease in sales of epidemic prevention and control related products. The China Pharmaceutical Enterprise Management Association recently released a report highlighting these challenges faced by the industry during this period.

In the first half of 2023, the pharmaceutical industry above designated size experienced a decline in its added value, operating income, and profit compared to the previous year. The added value fell by 4.1% year-on-year, reaching a total of 1,433.96 billion yuan. Similarly, operating income decreased by 2.9% year-on-year, totaling 1,433.96 billion yuan. The profit also suffered a significant decline of 17.2% year-on-year, amounting to 214.18 billion yuan.

These negative growth figures are lower than the overall growth rate of the national industry by 7.9, 2.5, and 0.4 percentage points for added value, operating income, and profit, respectively.

However, it is worth noting that compared to the first quarter, the decline in these three indicators for the period of January to June has narrowed. The added value decline reduced by 0.1 percentage points, while operating income and profit declined by 0.2 and 5.2 percentage points, respectively.

Overall, the pharmaceutical industry above designated size faced challenges in the first half of 2023 but witnessed some improvement in the second quarter, indicating a possible recovery trend.

The performance of individual sub-industries has taken diverging paths in recent times. Out of the three sub-industries including chemical preparations, Chinese medicine decoction pieces, and Chinese patent medicine, all witnessed a positive growth in operating income and profit, with the Chinese medicine sub-sector recording double-digit growth. However, the remaining sub-sectors such as auxiliary materials and packaging materials, as well as pharmaceutical equipment experienced positive growth in operating income but suffered a negative growth in profit. On the other hand, industries such as chemical raw materials, biological products, health materials and medical supplies, medical instruments and equipment all recorded a negative growth in operating income and profit.