Moving toward becoming a powerhouse in pharmaceutical equipment is an urgently needed breakthrough for the industry.

2020-05-08

The domestic pharmaceutical machinery market is growing at an astonishing pace. By 2016, it is projected to triple—or even triple again—compared to the current level of 15 billion yuan. Under the supervision of the new healthcare reform and the new Five-Year Plan, the pharmaceutical equipment industry will reap significant benefits. The high technological content of these devices not only substantially reduces costs but also brings about substantial economic gains.

However, we must acknowledge that at present, many Chinese enterprises are still at the stage of imitating, improving, and combining existing technologies—far from reaching the level of true innovation or surpassing their global counterparts. In the pharmaceutical equipment industry, very few companies have stepped up their investment in equipment technology. This is a situation within the industry that calls for immediate change. For a long time, due to production standards that have consistently lagged behind international benchmarks, Chinese pharmaceutical equipment has faced criticism from the global market regarding quality standards, and several trade disputes have even arisen as a result.

It is encouraging to note that, with the implementation of the new GMP standards, China’s pharmaceutical industry has achieved integration between international and domestic production standards and will further accelerate its pace of entering the global market.

The pharmaceutical machinery industry is a specialized field that integrates pharmaceutical technology, biotechnology, chemical engineering, mechanical and manufacturing technologies, acoustics, optics, automated control, and computer applications. Consequently, its development is closely linked to various industries and sectors.

How can we achieve qualitative transformation through quantitative accumulation? How can we make the leap from being a country that merely assembles large-scale pharmaceutical equipment to becoming a powerhouse in pharmaceutical equipment manufacturing? This is a significant challenge hindering further industry development—and it’s a pressing issue that urgently needs to be addressed. It’s an issue that can and must be tackled by those within the industry itself.

Industry insiders say that companies lacking strong technological and financial resources can collaborate with pharmaceutical design institutes and research institutions, participating in new drug development and process improvement efforts at pharmaceutical plants. By strengthening regular equipment maintenance and providing enhanced training for customers, these companies can win more clients. (Excerpted from an integrated report by China Pharmaceutical Network)