China’s pharmaceutical industry is expected to grow at 20 percent per annum for the next four years, according to a five-year plan released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology yesterday.

With such a growth rate, the industry will be worth more than 3 trillion yuan ($474.88 billion) by 2015.

In 2010, the annual output of China’s pharmaceutical industry was 1.24 trillion yuan, with average growth of 23 percent between 2005 and 2010.

"It is inevitable for the industry to show a slight slowdown given the dismal world economy,” Yu Mingde, president of the Chinese Pharmaceutical Enterprises Association, told the Global Times yesterday.

According to the five-year plan, the domestic pharmaceutical industry will be further consolidated. At least five industry giants with annual sales of over 50 billion yuan and some 100 companies selling more than 10 billion yuan a year are expected to emerge.

Currently over 90 percent of China’s pharmaceutical companies mainly produce generic drugs. But ”generic drug producers are facing increasing challenges given that international big pharmaceutical companies are also eyeing the market,” said the plan.

In November, Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG announced that it would build a generic drug production base in Guangdong Province.

But Yu noted that the market for generic drugs is seeing rapid growth. Some 130 original research drugs will lose their patent protection in the next five years, which could mean even greater market potential.

Exports of Chinese medicines are expected to grow 20 percent each year, said the report, and some 50 domestic companies will set up research facilities outside China by 2015.

"The target is reasonable, since in the first 11 months of last year, medicine exports grew by 36 percent year-on-year,” said Xu Ming, an official with China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Medicines and Health Products.

The plan noted that the domestic bio-pharmaceutical sector is set for faster growth, as sales of bio-medicine have been growing at more than 15 percent during the past years, double that of other sectors.