Report: China to be 3rd largest pharma market by 2011

Pharmaceutical market research firm IMS Health said that China will become the world’s third-largest market for prescription drugs in 2011, and predicted that sales in other emerging markets will also grow rapidly, the AP reported. IMS said that the Chinese market could double by 2013 as Beijing upgrades health-care infrastructure and attempts to provide universal coverage. Drug revenues in China will grow by US$40 billion by that time. The report is an upgrade of IMS’ original prediction, made in 2006, that China would be the world’s sixth-largest drug market by 2011.