Pharmaceutical market in China

As growth in the U.S. and European markets remains sluggish, many giant pharmaceutical companies are expanding their sales forces, distribution channels, and research operations – to draw from China’s booming drug market — to expand at about 22 percent annually over the next five years.
We see companies continuing to invest in China because the other markets are not growing. For companies, China’s growth is certainly a good story to tell the Street, right?
With a huge and aging population, rapid urbanization, and adoption of Western lifestyles that give rise to hypertension, obesity, and other diseases, China is poised to become the world’s third biggest pharmaceutical market by 2013, up from its current No. 5 spot.
The $24.5 billion market is expected to swell to $78 billion by 2013, leaving it behind only the United States and Japan.
China is taking the place of Germany and France. This is a clear time for action. If Big Pharma does not get into China now, they will not grow.
U.S. drugmakers were once content to grow in their home market but are now anxious to make up for lost time.