Recently,China producers of artemisinin raw material are suffering.Accoring to Zhejiang Medicare Import & Export Company, since June last year,the price of artemisinin raw materials fallen from ￥4,200/ kg to ￥2,400 yuan /kg, the whole industry is facing the situation that the purchase price is lower than the cost.SMEs have begun to withdraw from the market.

The Artemisinin Price Slumped All The Way

In 2006, due to the expansion of planting area, international orders of artemisinin were lower than expected.In the next two years,artemisinin industry bottomed,lots of enterprises had withdrawed the market,As a result, farmers'enthusiasm reduced for planting,the planting area dropped.

In 2009,owing to the lack of raw materials, artemisinin prices went up all the way,it was highter than ￥3,000/ kg.In 2011, it reached as high as ￥5,000/ kg.

Information asymmetry caused a miscarriage of justice

It is believed that the expansion was not the only reason for falled price of artemisinin,it attributes to the manipulation of international buyers, of which India is the main forces.WHO has always been advocated to reduce the purchase price of artemisinin,In recent years,India has severalartemisinin preparations to enter the WHO procurement catalog and becomes the biggest buyer of China artemisinin raw materials.However,due to the surplus raw materials in domestic last year,the breach of contract appeared everywhere in India,such as malicious inquiry,keeping the prices down and so on,which resulting in artemisinin prices had fallen lower even than the cost in domestic.

Accoring to PIDI Standard (Holdings) Ltd ,the largest artemisinin raw material suppliers, total raw materials and the number of orders from the domestic market didn't form a serious surplus last year.It's mainly because international orders did not meet expectations,the enterprises eager to sell.Another reason is that farmers planted humilis seeds with high content,which improved the extraction rate.

The real danger is coming

Recently, the International Conference on artemisinin industry has just ended in Kenya, Lin Ting,the general manager of PIDI Standard attended the meeting as the representative of China."Currently, artemisinin industry is at a turning point of development, either toward standardization self-discipline or to self-destructive.In fact, the international markets pay much attention to China artemisinin industry, they want China artemisinin industry develop orderly, the price remained relatively stable."she said.

In fact, the real danger is moving forward to China artemisinin industry. Semi-synthetic artemisinin which was funded by the WHO successfully has developed by Sanofi.Although the cost of Semi-synthetic artemisinin is still relatively high,once the technology is mature and the success of large-scale industrialization,the raw materials of artemisinin which extracted from plants will significantly affected.

According to herbridge media,The major domestic artemisinin companies have taken measures to save the market,the price of artemisinin has rised from $330/kg to $390/kg.It's participated that the price will continue to go up in the future.

Copyright：Herbridge Media