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WHO Certification a Shot-in-the-Arm for China Vaccine Makers Dec 1, 2011: On March 1, 2011, the World Health Organization certified that the SFDA’s standards meet international criteria for vaccine supervision. Other regulatory hurdles remain, but the WHO imprimatur means China vaccine makers will eventually be able to supply vaccines to resource-poor nations through UN-related agencies, a huge market. Over time, the WHO action could transform China’s vaccine industry. More details....

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SFDA Annual Report of Drug Registration Approvals -- 2010 Oct 21, 2011: The SFDA has released a concise summary of its registration approvals last year, showing, to nobody's surprise, that China's pharmaceutical scene is active -- the number of approvals numbered exactly 1,000. To make the data more useful, we have broken it down using various metrics, presenting, for example, the totals by type of drug (chemical, TCM, biologic), the number of clinical trials approved, and the number of registration applications that were submitted. All of the data is contained in the eight tables. More details....

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China Attacks Antibiotic Overuse, Putting Pressure on Makers’ Stock Prices Oct 7, 2011: China's doctors and patients love antibiotics. Although the country’s consumption of pharma products remains low, its antibiotic use is disproportionately high. Unfortunately, there is a price for heavy use of antibiotics: the PRC has high levels of drug-resistant infections, especially in tuberculosis and urinary tract infections. In an attempt to stop this trend, China's government is trying to curb overuse of antibiotics, which is having a negative effect on the stock prices of pharmas that make these products. More details....

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India Takes Aim at China Pharma's Inroads into the Indian Market Oct 6, 2011: The pharmaceutical business is very important to India, and India is very successful at exporting pharma products to other countries. But India is worried China may grow to dominate India’s own pharma market, taking over business that India wants to keep for itself. Last year, China exported $3.3 billion of APIs to India, while India sent just $500 million of APIs to China. India's Commerce Ministry thinks the government should intervene. More details...

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China’s Pharma Output Climbed 30% in First Seven Months of 2011 Sep 29, 2011: For the first seven months of 2011, the production value of mainland China’s pharmaceutical industry was up 29.6% compared to the same period last year, according to the National Development and Reform Commission. Total output was 802.4 billion RMB ($125 billion). All the sectors of the industry showed healthy gains. If the industry continues at its present pace, full-year 2011 output would equal 1.375 trillion RMB ($215 billion). More details....

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China Takes Dramatic Step to Curb TCM Speculation Jul 18, 2011: China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), which has responsibility for controlling prices in China, decided on a dramatic course of action to lower the high cost of TCM raw materials. The NDRC told anyone who has a supply of codonopsis pilosula, an important TCM herb more popularly known as radix, that they must sell their supplies – and then set a low price as the ceiling at which the transactions must take place. To show that it means business, the NDRC ordered the worst offenders to sell their stockpiles within one week. More details....

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China Leads India on Drug Patents and Academic Drug Research Jul 14, 2011: China’s academic and research institutions received 15% of all patents granted worldwide for drug research in 2007-2008. That far outpaced the 2% that India’s institutions were awarded, and it also handily topped the 5% garnered by US academics. In terms of scientific papers, Indian researchers are third in the world, having published 4,642 biopharma papers in the last decade. However, during the same time period, China published 5,720, good for second place, and the US took first place with 13,314. (Data compiled by the Boston Consulting Group.) More details....

Biotech a Priority in China’s $309 Billion Five-Year Plan Jun 28, 2011: China has earmarked 2 trillion RMB ($309 billion) for science and technology in its 2011-2015 Five-Year Plan. Biotechnology – including biopharmacy, bio-engineering, bio-agriculture and biomanufacturing – will be a major priority, according to Yandong Liu, Chinese State Councilor and member of the Politburo. The goal of the funding is two-fold: to improve the quality of life in China and to add one million new jobs by 2015. More details....

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INDs and NDAs Quantify the Innovation in China’s Drug R&D Jun 10, 2011: Do we know how much innovation exists in China’s drug R&D sector? To get some data on the matter, the journal Nature recently published an article that counted the number of INDs and NDAs approved by the SFDA in recent years. Their answer? During the eight years from 2003-10, the SFDA allowed an average of about 25 innovative drugs each year to begin clinical trials (INDs), and it approved for marketing about four new drugs per year (NDAs). More details....

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Q1 Earnings Review: Healthy Revenue Increases, Smaller Profit Growth May 23, 2011: It's earnings season, and almost every day for the past few weeks, one to three China life science companies listed in the US have released their quarterly financial reports. Taken as a whole, companies from this sector have almost uniformly reported higher revenues. Net income has also risen, though usually by a lower percentage. The two largest companie in the groups, Mindray Medical and WuXi PharmaTech, continue to impress with strong gains. Price/Earnings ratios are lower than they were a few years ago, ranging from 31 down to a lowly 1.4. We give snapshots of the sixteen companies that have released reports so far this month. More details....

Stock Symbols: (NYSE: MR) (NYSE: WX)

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