Looking Ahead to 2019: The Pharmaceutical Machinery Industry Should Shift Focus from Capital to Technology

　　A fresh new year, a fresh new look at 2019. This year is not only a new stage of development for pharmaceutical machinery enterprises as they recover from the cold winter, but also a turning point for the industry, with the elimination of old industries and the development of new ones. Industry insiders say, "Enterprises should change their previous concept of relying on capital for development and focus more on technology, competing on 'true skills'."."}, {
　　For a long time, the pharmaceutical machinery equipment industry in China has been hampered by its late start and weak technology. Initially, there were only a handful of manufacturers involved in this field, merely single digits. Moreover, these pioneering manufacturers mainly relied on imitation and copying technology, and the equipment they developed could not compete with imported equipment.
　　In recent years, with the support of favorable domestic policies and the improvement of people's living standards, the demand for pharmaceuticals has expanded, leading to rapid development of the pharmaceutical industry, and pharmaceutical machinery and equipment related to pharmaceutical production have also gained business opportunities.
　　It is reported that China's pharmaceutical market share in the global pharmaceutical market has reached 11%, making it the second largest pharmaceutical market in the world after the United States. The industry expects that in 2019, China's pharmaceutical market share will increase to 14%, surpassing the combined total of five European countries and second only to the United States.
　　Attracted by the huge market, more and more pharmaceutical machinery equipment manufacturers have been established, and many companies have joined the equipment production army. According to rough estimates, there are now nearly 7,000 pharmaceutical machinery equipment companies in China. Due to the advantages of low Price and easy maintenance of domestic pharmaceutical machinery equipment, it can basically meet the needs of the domestic pharmaceutical market, and there is great potential for future growth.
　　However, from the overall level of China's pharmaceutical machinery equipment industry, although the market size is huge and product performance has improved, the overall achievements are mainly due to the massive capital investment.
　　"In recent years, competition among domestic pharmaceutical companies has been fierce. With the acceleration of new drug approval and review and the faster speed of listing, the demand for pharmaceutical equipment and its flexibility have also increased." This is what a senior executive of a pharmaceutical machinery equipment company with close ties to pharmaceutical companies said.
　　He also pointed out that although China's pharmaceutical machinery equipment industry has made great progress compared to the past, the industry competition is caught in a vicious cycle. Most small and medium-sized enterprises are in a long-term stage of low-level and repetitive production, and they compete with increasingly lower Prices, dragging down the overall development level of the industry.
　　It is reported that in order to cope with the situation of low-Price competition among peers, the company has chosen to shift to technological innovation, increasing investment in R&D and R&D teams, improving automation and intelligent technology, and continuously enriching its product lines to maintain high-Price and high-level competition with the advantage of new product launches.
　　Under the increasingly strict environmental protection pressure, traditional and backward pharmaceutical machinery equipment in China is also facing elimination and improvement, and the future industry concentration will continue to increase.
　　At the same time, with the establishment and improvement of relevant domestic standards for pharmaceutical equipment, it is expected that the technical barriers for pharmaceutical equipment companies in China will be higher in the future. This also requires domestic pharmaceutical machinery equipment companies to pay more attention to technology, constantly innovate and break through in order to win the initiative in the future market.
　　Overall, China's pharmaceutical machinery equipment industry is expanding continuously with the opening up of new drug research and development and the promotion of pharmaceutical work such as "4+7 volume-based procurement." Industry data shows that the market size of China's pharmaceutical machinery equipment industry has maintained a growth rate of over 20% in recent years, exceeding 45 billion yuan in 2018. This shows the promising market prospects, bringing more development opportunities and challenges to enterprises.
　　In addition, with the encouragement and support of relevant policies, some leading Chinese companies with strong capabilities have been able to develop from simple imitation to collaborative development and independent innovation and R&D, and the industry's R&D capabilities are constantly improving. It is believed that under this background, domestic pharmaceutical machinery equipment enterprises will be able to seize opportunities, improve their own technology, cultivate their internal strength, and open the doors to domestic and foreign markets with their "true skills".