Chemical drugs refer to the compounds used to relieve, prevent, diagnose diseases and regulate bodily functions. Pharmaceuticals industry is to manufacture chemicals, including active pharmaceutical ingredient (APIs) and pharmaceutical preparations. It is an important branch of chemical industry and one of the main indicators of measuring the pharmaceutical ability and level of a country. China is a large API-production country and APIs is the backbone of our medicine exports.

In 2005, the total industrial output value of APIs accumulated to 116.277 billion, with year-on-year growth of 34%; and the total industrial output value of pharmaceutical preparations accumulated to 125.894 billion, with year-on-year growth of 21%. The sales revenue of APIs was 119.745 billion, with year-on-year growth of 29.89%; and the sales revenue of pharmaceutical preparations was 112.495 billion, with year-on-year growth of 22.98%. The profit of APIs was 6.781 billion, with year-on-year growth of 27.50%, and the profit of pharmaceutical preparations was 10.792 billion, with year-on-year growth of 15.27%. The pharmaceuticals industry developed rapidly.

In 2006, the total industrial output value of APIs accumulated to 128.881 billion, with year-on-year growth of 16.7%; and the total industrial output value of pharmaceutical preparations accumulated to 150.134 billion, with year-on-year growth of 14.31%. The sales revenue of APIs was 125.850 billion, with year-on-year growth of 13.41%; and the sales revenue of pharmaceutical preparations was 138.254 billion, with year-on-year growth of 14.78%. The profit of APIs was 7.199 billion, with year-on-year growth of 17.87%, and the profit of pharmaceutical preparations was 11.505 billion, with year-on-year growth of 2.34%.

In the first 2 months of 2007, the total industrial output value of APIs accumulated to 21.058 billion, with year-on-year growth of 18.51%; and the total industrial output value of pharmaceutical preparations accumulated to 25.152 billion, with year-on-year growth of 14.90%. The sales revenue of APIs was 20.161 billion, with year-on-year growth of 14.31%; and the sales revenue of pharmaceutical preparations was 23.1775 billion, with year-on-year growth of 14.04%. The profit of APIs was 1.121 billion, with year-on-year growth of 18.35%, and the profit of pharmaceutical preparations was 2.174 billion, with year-on-year growth of 30.49%.

Now, the global pharmaceutical market is transferring from the US to other emerging markets in the world which is sharing 17% of the pharmaceutical market and is expected to share 30% of the market. The growth of Chinese market will be 15%-16% and the market scale is expected to be 15-16 billion, which will make China the seventh biggest pharmaceutical market in the world in 2010. Pharmaceuticals industry is vital to China for its development affects the whole medical industry. With constant improvement in national management systems of medicine, the growth of pharmaceutical enterprises and the large consumer market, pharmaceuticals industry has good development prospects despite of many difficulties. As one of the branches of medical industry, the manufacturing of steroid hormone APIs is new and there is a large market capacity at home and abroad. There is a good market prospect. With the moving of APIs manufacturing from Europe and America to developing countries, India and China have become the main producers of steroid hormone APIs.