Hormone Drugs Drive China’s Western Medicine Preparation Exports to Record Level

(Yicai) Jan. 30 -- The share of China’s exports of Western medicine preparations in the country’s total Western medicine exports reached a record 15.85 percent last year, signaling an ongoing upgrade of the pharmaceutical export structure toward higher value-added products, including Ozempic-like diabetes medicines.China’s exports of Western medicine preparations totaled USD8.8 billion last year, up 27 percent from the previous year, according to data released yesterday by the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Medicines and Health Products. The proportion of preparation exports in total Western medicine exports climbed to a historic high of 15.85 percent, compared with 12.88 percent in 2024.Exports of Western medicine preparations showed a trend of both rising volume and prices. Export volumes increased 17.7 percent year on year, while the average export unit price rose 8 percent.By destination, exports to the European Union, excluding the United Kingdom, still accounted for the largest share and surged 70.4 percent from a year earlier, about 10 percentage points higher than in 2024. Exports to France jumped over 280 percent, those to Denmark rose 19 percent, and shipments to Italy soared almost 490 percent.Affected by additional tariffs, the share of pharmaceutical preparation exports to the United States fell to 13.1 percent, down about 3.4 percentage points from 2024.Overall, hormone-based drugs were the main driver of China’s strong growth in pharmaceutical preparation exports last year, with export value reaching USD3.2 billion, up nearly 110 percent from the previous year.Exports of preparations including insulin analogues and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) drugs amounted to USD3 billion, more than doubling year on year, accounting for a large share of the growth in hormone drug exports. In addition, exports of recombinant human insulin preparations totaled USD82.4 million, up 88 percent.Demand for insulin analogues and GLP-1 drugs has surged worldwide due to the rising incidence of metabolic diseases such as diabetes and obesity, the chamber said. Chinese companies have achieved technological breakthroughs and expanded production capacity in these areas and are increasingly exporting products to emerging markets in various forms for commercialization.Editor: Emmi Laine