According to Wang Hongguang, Deputy Director of China Biotechnology Development Center under the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Chinese government will strengthen its investment into the biotechnology sector, especially biopharmaceuticals, in the 11th five year plan period (2006-2010).
Wang said government investment will reach CNY 10 billion (US$1.3 billion) in the biotechnology area between 2006 and 2010, with increased support to innovative new drugs.
Official statistics show that the annual R&D spending of the Chinese pharmaceutical industry are equivalent to about 2.5% of the industry’s annual revenues. Among the total annual drug R&D spending in China, about one third comes from the government. In 2005, the Chinese government budget for life science related research was US$800 million, compared with US$83 billion by the US government.
China successfully developed 12 new biopharmaceuticals in the past ten years with an average of CNY 100 million (US$13 billion) R&D spending for each one of them, according to Wang. He also suggested that China is the largest potential market in the world for biotech products with an estimated CNY 700 billion (US$91 billion) market size.
China's 11th Five Year Plan for the biotech sector calls for annual industrial added value of CNY 500 billion in 2010 (US$65 billion), and that of CNY 2 trillion (US$260 billion) in 2020.
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