While the average growth rate of global pharmaceutical market is about 4-5%, China's pharmaceutical market has been growing at a rate of around 30% during the last few years. However, China's pharmaceutical market is complex, with over 5,000 domestic drug companies and the world top 20 pharmaceutical companies competing for the multi-billion market.
Compared with other developed markets where patented drugs capture over half of the market, pharmaceutical market in China is dominant by domestic companies that produce generics with a 63% market share; patented drugs from multinational pharmaceutical companies represent about 15% share. OTC drugs capture about 22% market share. The growth rate of generic drugs is significant at around 28-30% compared with 20-23% of patented products from multinational pharmaceutical companies.