Biopharmaceuticals in China.

The biopharmaceutical industry, whose products are produced mainly by recombinant DNA technology, antibody technologies and cytotechnology, is the most important sector in industrial biotechnology, and is one of the most rapidly growing high-tech industries. The global market for biopharmaceuticals had been growing at annual growth rates of 15-33% over the last 8 years, and sales exceeded 55 billion dollars in 2005. This review presents an overview of the Chinese biopharmaceutical industry, listing the global top-selling biopharmaceuticals in 2005, and briefly describes the major biotech drugs approved by the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration, such as recombinant cytokines, therapeutic antibodies, recombinant vaccines, and gene therapy products.