API industry enters a new stage

- Opportunities and challenges coexist in pharmaceutical machinery enterprises -

Raw material medicine, also known as active drug ingredients, is made by chemical synthesis, plant extraction or biotechnology, but patients can not directly take the material, generally need to add excipients, processing, can be made into direct use of drugs. At present, China has become one of the main API markets in the world. With the acceleration of China's medical policy reform in recent years, the number of new DMF registrations in China has been increasing every year, and the export scale of API has also begun to grow rapidly.

According to the data of the National Bureau of statistics, in 2019, the output of chemical raw drugs in China will reach 2.769 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 20.2%; in 2020, the output of chemical raw drugs in China will reach 2.734 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 2.7%. In addition, the report on in-depth investigation and investment prospect prediction of China's API industry from 2020 to 2024 also shows that in 2019, the market scale of China's API has reached 257.929 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 6.4%.

Industry analysis shows that in the medium and long term, with the gradual transfer of API production capacity to the Asia Pacific region and the growth of API demand under centralized procurement, China's API market will continue to expand. However, under the background of the small scattered chaos in the domestic API industry, as well as the low price competition among enterprises, serious waste of resources, overcapacity and other problems, the industry expects that the domestic API industry will go through a transformation period and enter a new stage of development. At this stage, the industry believes that the whole API industry will also put forward higher and more requirements for the standardized development and cost control ability of API enterprises.

In this context, the industry believes that in the future, environmental protection and green process API will be the key development direction of national industry. Affected by this, it is expected that the API pharmaceutical equipment industry will also usher in more development opportunities. In particular, low-cost, high-efficiency, energy-saving and environmental protection pharmaceutical equipment may lead the new trend of API production.

It is understood that, in fact, many domestic API equipment enterprises have started to make continuous efforts in the field of environmental protection and energy saving. For example. With drying equipment manufacturers, through continuous strengthening of R & D investment, to create environment-friendly and energy-saving API production equipment. The company has set up a special environmental protection company and supporting engineering experimental center, and also established the core elements of energy saving and environmental protection product design to actively develop and produce green equipment. At present, it has gradually achieved good economic and social benefits.

Many other enterprises are integrating new technologies into the R & D and production of API equipment. For example, some enterprises have developed a liquid nitrogen freeze-drying machine that uses liquid nitrogen as a cold source to refrigerate the system; a new sterilization process that can transport gaseous water to the freeze-drying machine pipeline under the action of the existing vacuum system for hydrogen peroxide sterilization and disinfection; a fully automatic solid-liquid separation solution that reduces energy consumption, water consumption, labor demand and wastewater treatment costs, and improves product recovery And so on. In addition, some enterprises have set up an experienced technical team specialized in heat exchange equipment, aiming at energy saving and consumption reduction, and are committed to providing customers with effective solutions for cost reduction and efficiency improvement.

In general, these new technologies, new equipment and new solutions of current pharmaceutical equipment enterprises are further providing strong process support for high-quality production of API enterprises. As the API industry enters the business cycle, it is expected that the API equipment market will also grow. However, it is worth noting that opportunities often coexist with challenges. Therefore, while seizing the opportunity, API equipment enterprises also need to constantly adapt to the new demands and requirements of the market, innovate equipment and technology, and improve the equipment structure, so as to help the API industry develop with higher quality and provide users with more and better services.