China's resources for clinical trials and low-cost manufacturing and technology services are attracting growing interest from drug-makers, according to industry experts.

Dennis Gillings, chairman and CEO of US-based Quintiles Transnational Corp, estimated the market for outsourcing medicine development in China will see an average annual growth rate of about 25 per cent in the coming years, outpacing the global average, which is about 14 per cent.

Gillings, who founded Quintiles 24 years ago, said that drug development outsourcing in China is following a pattern similar to the United States and Europe. When the industry emerged in those countries, annual growth rates were also at about 25 per cent.

"There is and will continue to be great interest, not only from US and European companies, but also Japanese companies, to conduct clinical trials in China," said Gillings.

Quintiles is the world's largest contract research organization (CRO) and has 20 per cent of the Chinese CRO market share. A CRO is a service-oriented company that helps healthcare companies develop and test new medicines.

According to Rui Guozhong, a researcher with the China Center for Pharmaceutical International Exchange, sales of the CRO market in China reached 560 million yuan (US$70 million) in 2005, from 480 million yuan (US$60 million) in 2004.

He estimated the figure for this year will be 700 million yuan (US$87.5 million).
Larry Ellingson, chairman of the board of directors of the American Diabetes Association and CEO to Protemix Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in New Zealand, pointed out that the cost and risks of developing drugs are skyrocketing.