China's capsule industry development prospects and analysis of the current market situation

China's capsule industry development prospects and analysis of the current market situation

　　China's capsule industry development prospects and analysis of the current market situation

　　Drugs in capsules are generally powders or particles that are irritating to the mucous membrane of the esophagus and stomach, or bad taste, easy to volatilize, easy to be decomposed by saliva in the mouth, and easy to inhale into the trachea. These drugs are encapsulated to protect the drug's medicinal properties from being destroyed and also to protect the digestive organs and respiratory tract. Removing the capsule shell may result in drug loss, drug waste, and reduced efficacy. In addition, some drugs need to be dissolved and absorbed in the intestine, and the capsule protects the drug from being destroyed by stomach acid.

　　In order to meet the special needs of the modern pharmaceutical industry for research and development and preparation of new drugs, new pharmaceutical hollow capsules with various special functions have been introduced one after another, including enteric capsules, vegetable capsules, slow-release capsules, etc. According to the different sources of plants to divide, plant capsules can be divided into starch capsules, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose capsules, seaweed capsules three categories.

　　Among them, starch capsules to cassava, corn, potatoes and other plant starch as the main raw material; hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose capsules to cotton, bark, etc. as the main raw material; seaweed capsules to kelp, horsetail, red algae, etc. as the main raw material. In comparison, starch capsules are more widely sourced raw materials, but their production processes are more complex and require continuous improvement in production technology for future development.

　　With the increase in the variety of capsules, in order to adapt to the filling of different types of contents, pharmaceutical companies have different requirements for pharmaceutical hollow capsules water content, fragility and chemical stability indicators, which makes the pharmaceutical hollow capsule industry continue to increase investment in the research and development of new capsule materials, such as non-animal origin hollow capsules, slow release hollow capsules have become an important direction for the development of pharmaceutical excipients.

　　China's gelatin capsule exports are much larger than imports, 2015-2020 China's gelatin capsule exports are growing year by year, increasingly becoming an important supplier of the international capsule market, according to statistics, as of January-May 2021 China's gelatin capsule exports of 2653.31 tons, an increase of 39.3%, imports of 17.67 tons, an increase of 36.32%.

　　Import and export amounts, according to statistics, as of May 2021 China's gelatin capsules exports amounted to $ 66,912,900, an increase of 52.55% year-on-year, and imports amounted to $ 1,127,300, an increase of 28.35%.

In China's capsule industry, larger-scale enterprises coexist with small and medium-sized enterprises. Among them, small and medium-sized enterprises produce low-priced products and occupy a certain market in the domestic market. The production of gelatin capsules requires the use of more expensive pharmaceutical gelatin, more small enterprises to reduce production costs, the use of inexpensive edible gelatin or even industrial gelatin, causing a great threat to drug safety.

According to statistics, the current market price of regular pharmaceutical gelatin is around 50,000 yuan / ton, while the price of blue alum skin gelatin is only 1.5-2.0 million yuan / ton. With the national health care system reform and deepening, the pharmaceutical industry policies have been introduced and implemented, the capsule industry structure is facing adjustment and upgrading, more production is not standardized small and medium-sized capsule enterprises were eliminated from the game, large enterprises will occupy more market share in the future.

In recent years, as people's understanding of gelatin capsules continue to deepen, green, renewable bio-based capsule shell research is receiving more and more attention, with more understanding of bio-based green materials and bio-based green materials to show the advantages, bio-based hollow capsules market application prospects are very broad.