Eli Lilly increases Chinese sales by 26 per cent

US-based pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly has said it has grown sales of its pharmaceutical products in China by 26 per cent, compared with sales over a year ago, with 16 per cent growth for the pharmaceutical industry in the region as a whole.

The company added that it expected to become the tenth largest company in the global pharmaceutical market by 2010. China is expected to become the seventh largest pharmaceutical market in 2012 and the second largest in 2020.

Lilly says it will introduce five drugs to the Chinese market in 2007 and an additional fifteen drugs over the next five years. The company signed an agreement with Hutchison Whampao, a drug development unit owned by Li Ka-shing, for the development of western drugs for treating cancer and inflammation.