Demand for pharmaceutical packaging in China expected to increase as country's elderly population grows, incomes rise, reforms support medicine consumption

Lorena Madrigal

BEIJING , March 5, 2012 (press release) – The future prospects of China’s medicine industry, which has experienced sustained rapid growth over the last few years, are highly positive. In the next two decades, the medicine manufacturing industry will undergo a period of rapid development due to three factors:

· new reforms in medicine;
· policy support from the 12th Five-Year Plan,
· greater consumption of medicine by an ageing population.

China’s Ageing Population
According to census data, China’s elderly population will reach 248 million in 2020, accounting for 17.17 percent of the population. By 2050, the number of elderly people in China will exceed 400 million – 30 percent of the population. Currently, the elderly account for half the medicine consumed in China. As the ageing population grows, medicine consumption will rise at a correspondingly rapid rate.

Rising Incomes Stimulate Higher Medical Expenditure
As incomes rise, so medicine consumption per capita is also increasing. Additionally, the demographic of people who consume drugs most frequently, the elderly, is growing. These two factors combined raise the level of China’s drug consumption.

Policy Effects Becoming Evident

Medical Reforms Boost Medicine Consumption
The establishment of a cooperative medical system in rural areas has enabled rural dwellers unable to afford pricy treatments and medicines to access healthcare. Increased government subsidies mean that residents are now reimbursed a greater percentage of their medical expenses. This has encouraged those in need of medical care to seek treatment in hospitals. Nevertheless, healthcare spending accounted for a low proportion of the Chinese government’s spending. This is to say that there remains room to increase medical expenditure and, as a consequence, boost access to, and consumption of, medicine.

Folding carton boxes are easy to carry, easily recyclable and environment friendly. For this reason, most medicines on the market are packaged with it. Today, the folding carton manufacturing industry is faced with fresh opportunities to package drugs.

The introduction of the drug electronic monitoring code policy has given the folding carton packaging industry the opportunity to expand into medicine packaging. In 2011, China’s FDA decreed that all basic medicines should have electronic monitoring codes by the end of February 2012. This requirement will then be extended to all medicines by 2015. At that time, even the smallest package of drugs produced by the country’s 2,152 drug and medicine manufacturers will have an electronic monitoring code.

Folding carton packaging for medicine is more refined than regular carton. This is why drug packaging manufacturers, in need of suitable processing equipment are keen to find of suppliers who can provide inkjet printing solutions in the form of rapid, precise inkjet printers.

SinoFoldingCarton 2012 will be a powerful showcase of the latest solutions in the printing market. It will also be the ideal channel through which to buy equipment. The exhibition will feature a dedicated Electronic Monitoring Code Zone where the latest advances for drug electronic monitoring codes will be displayed. The trade show will also feature the most popular solutions on the market and highlight emerging trends in the drug packaging and printing industry.

Visitors and folding carton manufacturers can get the information, expertise and equipment they need to enter a new field of drug box packaging at SinoFoldingCarton 2012.

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