China Continues Efforts to Gain Global Pharmaceutical Market Share

China is determined to make it on the world pharmaceutical stage.

China's medicines regulator is introducing a new set of quality standards as the superpower seeks to make its mark on the global pharmaceutical arena. At present, the nation only accounts for around 1.5 per cent of the global drug market, despite being home to a fifth of the world's population.

A number of factors have acted as barriers to China's success on the world stage, including its highly fragmented domestic pharmaceutical market, lack of intellectual property rights and relatively poor grasp of the English language compared to competitors. Another important factor has been China's lack of visible drug approval procedures and pharmaceutical-related regulations - something the nation is now seeking to address.

The ongoing problems with drug manufacturing standards have been