More effort must be put into protecting intellectual property rights (IPR) in the pharmaceutical sector, a senior official of the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) said.
Zhang Jingli, deputy director of the SFDA, was speaking at a pharmaceutical IPR summit forum in Beijing on Tuesday.
China has authorized administrative protection to 155 IPR applicants from 12 countries, and has added data safeguarding requirements to its regulations covering the supervision and administration of medicines, Zhang added.
Zhang said that China has abolished the administrative protection for new medicines, in accordance with its World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments.
However, Zhang pointed out that although Chinese pharmaceutical businesses have boosted their production capacities to match world standards, the industry is still weak as far as innovation is concerned.
SFDA statistics show that the total output value of China's pharmaceutical industry reached 449.6 billion yuan (US$54.4 billion) in 2004, approximately 70 times that in 1980. But in terms of market share, the more than 6000 domestic drug makers could only equal that of GlaxoSmithKline, the world's second-largest drug maker.
Zhang Qingkui, of the State Intellectual Property Office, cited the lack of investment in research and development (R&D) and independent IPRs as a major obstacle to the growth of the industry in China.
Statistics show that large foreign multinationals invest about 15 to 20 percent of their sales revenues in R&D. Chinese companies only invest one percent.
Under the planned economy system in the past, Chinese businesses were highly dependent on copying others. They had neither the capability nor were they under any pressure to innovate.
However, according to relevant WTO rules, developers of pharmaceuticals under patent protection can levy huge indemnities for IPR infringements.
"Chinese businesses are entering a new phase of 'combination copying and creating' as opposed to 'completely copying'," Zhang said. "For Chinese businesses that have a short history, to make improvements to the products or their manufacturing processes is an acceptable practice."
Also yesterday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao stressed the importance and urgency of improving the country's ability to innovate in science and technology.
(Xinhua News Agency July 20, 2005)