China Contract Manufacturing Market - Current Market Landscape

Currently, over 35 CMOs / CDMOs in China claim to offer manufacturing services for biopharmaceuticals. Majority of these (55%) are mid-sized companies (51-500 employees), followed by 24% very large companies (more than 1,000 employees). Examples of such companies include (in alphabetical order) 3SBio, Asymchem, Boehringer Ingelheim BioXcellence, ChemPartner Biologics, GE Healthcare, Merck Millipore, WuXi AppTec, Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceutical.

Among the players that provide biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing in China, majority (77%) provide manufacturing services for proteins / peptides, followed by those having the capabilities to produce antibodies (62%) and vaccines (33%). Further, it was observed that majority of the players (54%) are offering contract services across all scales of operation. This was followed by the companies offering both preclinical and clinical (20%) scales of manufacturing. Further, 10% companies had the capabilities to offer manufacturing services at the preclinical scale only.

It is worth highlighting that, majority of the companies (49%) that provide biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing in China are based in the same region as well, followed by those having headquarters in US (23%) and Taiwan (15%).

Further, around 90% of the total Chinese biopharmaceutical contract manufacturers are involved in biopharmaceutical API production. While around 60% are involved in production of biopharmaceutical FDFs and fill / finish / packaging. Moreover, only four companies are involved in production of HPAPIs; these are (in alphabetical order) Asymchem, Levena Biopharma, MabPlex and ScinoPharm.

Majority of the Chinese biopharmaceutical contract manufacturers are currently using both mammalian and microbial expression systems for manufacturing biotherapeutics. It has been observed that mammalian systems have emerged as the most desired manufacturing models for the production of complex vaccines. Some of the advantages of mammalian cell lines over other expression systems include:

• High expression rates
• Ease-of-culturing and maintenance
• Protein glycosylation closely resembles that in humans

At present, single use technologies appear to be the preferred choice of Chinese CMOs. It has been observed that 31% of Chinese contract manufacturers utilize single use bioreactors, while only 5% prefer stainless steel bioreactors. Further, there are 5 manufacturers that claim to have both of the aforementioned reactors. In addition, industrialists believe that, in the coming years, hybrid technologies, wherein companies can reap the unique advantages of both traditional and novel technologies, are likely to adopted at a faster rate.

The 'China Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Market, 2020-2030' report features an extensive study of the current market landscape and future opportunities associated with the contract manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals in China. The study also features a detailed analysis of key drivers and trends related to this evolving domain.

The opinions and insights presented in the report were influenced by discussions held with senior stakeholders in the industry. The report features detailed transcripts of interviews held with the following industry stakeholders:

• Birgit Schwab, Senior Manager Strategic Marketing, Rentschler Biotechnologie
• Jeffrey Hung, Chief Commercial Officer, Vigene Biosciences
• Stephen Taylor, Senior Vice President Commercial, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies

All actual figures have been sourced and analyzed from publicly available information forums and primary research discussions. Financial figures mentioned in this report are in USD, unless otherwise specified.

Roots Analysis provides market research and consulting in the pharmaceutical industry. Focussed on providing an informed and impartial view on key issues facing the industry, our research is primarily driven by an in-depth analysis.