Fighting Intensifies For China’s Hepatitis B Drug Market
This article was originally published in PharmAsia News
Executive Summary
China is the largest market for hepatitis B drugs due to the huge population at risk. Hepatitis B drugs can be classified into interferon and nucleotide products. Interferon products enjoy high brand recognition: Roche and Schering-Plough account for 52.3 percent of the hospital market, with Roche's Pegasys monopolizing 36.3 percent market share and hitting 108 percent growth in 2007. Most local firms only manage to each grab 6-7 percent of the business. For nucleotide drugs, imported and domestic products have an even fight: GSK tops the list for its lamivudine and adefovir dipivoxil, followed by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Novartis. Due to GSK's inability to get a patent for adefovir dipivoxil in China, 54 domestic organizations are applying to the State FDA for registration of products based on the drug, heating up the competition. (Click here for more - Chinese language)