The medicine industry in Sichuan province is quite affluent in resources.It is powerful in the R&D,manufacturing,export,and marketing of drugs (particularly Chinese traditional medicine) currently,and is observed to have optimistic potential in future as well. From this perception, the medicine industry has become one of the backbone industries,which has obvious comparative advantages and is promised broad market in the days ahead.

The medicine industry in Sichuan province started to develop at a relatively early time, and it welcomed its fast-growth period between 1990 and 2000, when its gross value of industrial output rose to RMB 8.46 billion Yuan in 2000, an incredible increase over the figure of RMB 850 million Yuan in 1990, with the annual growth rate at 25.9%.There were 348 medicine manufacturers in Sichuan province,and 246 of them engaged in producing APIs and pharmaceutical preparation, another 84 manufacturers were involved in the production of TCM decoction pieces, according to the statistics by 2004.A complete range of types of formulation in medical products is produced in Sichuan province: over 2,000 varieties of medicines covering nearly 7,000 specifications are ready to be selected.

The medicine industry in Sichuan province has gradually developed into an integrated system composed of various categories throughout the decades of years: it incorporates chemical pharmacy,biological (biochemical) pharmacy, production of prepared Chinese medicines,TCM decoction pieces processing, TCM extraction,TCM materials production, and medical appliance industry and so on.

1) Fast growth in medicine economy, with an increasingly important status in the country

The recent years witness year-on-year increases in many important indicators, like gross value of industrial output, sales revenue, added value, profit (see Fig. 1), which always occupy the 10th place or so at the national level, and furthermore, their ranking keeps moving upward year by year, so is the status. Talking about the gross value of industrial output alone, it climbed up from RMB 8 billion Yuan in 2000 to RMB 14.8 billion Yuan of 2004, with the proportion up to 4.1% from the previous 3.5%, and the ranking, as a result, got to the ninth place of the entire country.

2) Many indicators top in western China, as the bellwether in the medicine industry in the areas

On a national scale, bio-pharmaceutical industry and prepared Chinese medicine industry achieve better profits, while the chemical pharmaceutical preparation industry, API industry and medical equipment industry are relatively less profitable. On the other hand, as to western China, except for the chemical medicine preparation manufacturing that is behind Shaanxi Province, sales revenues of all sub-sectors in Sichuan province are gloriously placed first, outperforming the second by 10 per cent to 37 per cent.

The data released by the State Information Center in 2004 (see Table 1) indicated that in the previous year, the medicine industry scale of Sichuan province ranked first among all western provinces, municipality and autonomous regions, with the sales revenue accounting for one third of the total value in the west in 2003.

Fig. 1 Development trend of medicine industry in Sichuan province

Table 1: Sales revenue proportions of nine western provinces, municipality, and autonomous regions in the west in 2003

Note: The figures were worked out by the data center of the State Information Center.

3) Vivid characteristics in industrial structure, and prominent advantages in TCM industry

In the composition of Sichuan medicine industry, the chemical medicine industry and the TCM industry pick up 43% and 42% respectively, that is to say, the two industries, total 85%, is made up of the main part of medicine industry (see Fig. 2), an apparently different situation from the country on a whole (see Fig. 3). The national chemical medicine industry has a big share of 54%, twice as much as the TCM industry; but in Sichuan province, on the other hand, the two are almost the same.

Thus, TCM industry enjoys undoubted advantages in Sichuan province, and it contributes a huge portion to the provincial gross output value of medicine industry, a proportion much more than the national mean level. The fact above reflects that TCM industry is a key and advantageous section of the medicine industry in Sichuan province, setting front pace in this field (it was placed third in 2003, and the fourth place in 2004). Nevertheless, from another perception, it also implies that chemical medicine industry in Sichuan province has not yet developed to a mature degree (it ranked 14th place in the 2004 gross value of industrial output).

Fig.2 Industrial structure of medicine industry in Sichuan province (2003)

Fig.3 National industrial structure of medicine industry (2003)

Source: summarized from Medicine Industry Statistics Annual Report in 2003.

4) Status of medicine distributing center has been formed.