Current Status of the Pharmaceutical Intermediates Industry in 2025 and Forecast of Future Market Development Trends
I. Development Trends in the Pharmaceutical Intermediates Industry
The global pharmaceutical industry is at a crossroads of technological iteration and demand upgrading. As the “bridge” connecting basic chemicals and end-use drugs, the strategic importance of pharmaceutical intermediates continues to rise as the industrial chain becomes more specialized. Three core drivers are reshaping the industry landscape:
Structural Upgrades in Demand: Accelerating population aging is driving a surge in demand for chronic disease medications, with research and development of anti-tumor and metabolic disease treatments accounting for over 60% of the market, driving annual growth in demand for high-end intermediates exceeding 15%;
Supply-side technological revolution: The penetration rate of green processes such as continuous flow reactions and biocatalysis has exceeded 35%, while AI-assisted R&D has reduced the development cycle of intermediates by 40%, driving the industry's shift from a “scale-oriented” approach to a “technology-driven” model;
Policy-side institutional restructuring: The MAH system has promoted the separation of “R&D-production-sales,” with the CDMO model's share rising to 40%, forming a deep strategic partnership between multinational pharmaceutical companies and domestic intermediate manufacturers.
II. Comprehensive Overview of the Current State of the Pharmaceutical Intermediates Industry
(1) Supply Chain Restructuring and Evolution of the Competitive Landscape
Fluctuations in upstream raw material prices are driving supply chain integration: Geopolitical conflicts have caused a sharp rise in European natural gas prices, prompting Chinese intermediates companies to take on European orders. Leading companies are establishing long-term supply agreements to build a safety barrier for raw material supply.
Midstream Manufacturing Intelligent Upgrades: Leading companies are establishing “lights-out factories” to achieve full-process automation, boosting production efficiency by 300% and reducing quality variability to 0.3%. Modular production lines enable rapid delivery of customized intermediates within 7 days, securing long-term orders from multinational pharmaceutical companies.
Expansion of downstream application scenarios: Frontier technologies such as ADC drugs and gene therapy are driving demand for customized intermediates. Biologics require intermediate purity of 99.99%, driving expansion of the high-end market.
(2) Technological Breakthroughs and Domestic Substitution Progress
Commercialization of Key Technologies:
Continuous-flow reaction technology: A company has adopted microchannel reactors to increase the production efficiency of antibiotic intermediates by 3 times, reducing the reaction time per batch from 72 hours to 8 hours.
Biocatalytic technology: Enzyme-based synthesis of chiral compounds now accounts for over 30% of the market. A company has developed a transaminase-catalyzed process that reduces the cost of antidepressant intermediates by 45%.
AI-assisted R&D: Domestic AI tool DeepSeek has gained widespread application in synthetic pathway optimization. A company has reduced the R&D cycle for anticancer drug intermediates to 10 months and improved raw material utilization by 20% through algorithmic optimization.
Accelerated Domestic Substitution in High-End Markets: Fourth-generation antibiotic intermediates have entered Phase III clinical trials, and technical breakthroughs have been achieved in high-barrier fields such as bio-based intermediates and fluorinated intermediates. The number of domestic companies obtaining FDA/EMA certification has grown at an annual rate of 25%.
(3) Regional market differentiation and emerging opportunities
Optimization of domestic market layout: The Yangtze River Delta and Bohai Rim regions are focusing on upgrading existing production capacity, while central and western regions are leveraging resource advantages to expand new production capacity. A certain company's bio-based intermediate project in Sichuan has reached an annual output value of 2 billion yuan.
Redefining the international market landscape: Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa have emerged as new growth hubs. China's exports of intermediates to India have grown by 35% year-on-year, primarily supplying generic drug production. The intermediate project配套 for the Central Asia natural gas pipeline has created over 5,000 local jobs and promoted Chinese standards.
III. Future Five-Year Development Trends and Strategic Opportunities
(1) Technology-Driven Growth Path
Green manufacturing becomes a prerequisite for market entry: Advanced equipment such as RTO incinerators and MVR evaporators are widely adopted. Companies certified under ISO 14001 see a 40% improvement in export clearance efficiency when entering the EU market, and carbon footprint certification becomes a mandatory requirement in international competition.
Intelligent production reshapes cost structures: Industrial internet platforms enable real-time optimization of reactor parameters, with one company reducing energy consumption per unit of antibiotic intermediates by 30%, demonstrating the value of the digital economy.
Commercialization of cutting-edge technologies accelerates: Technologies such as photocatalysis and continuous-flow bioconversion enter a growth phase, with companies holding core patents seeing significant increases in market share, and the industry's CR10 potentially exceeding 60%.
(2) Structural upgrade of market demand
Innovative drugs drive demand for high-end intermediates: The widespread adoption of innovative therapies such as PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors and CAR-T therapy has led to explosive growth in demand for high-purity, high-stability intermediates. A multinational pharmaceutical company has transferred all production of key intermediates for anticancer drugs to China.
Expansion of the biopharmaceutical market brings new opportunities: Biologics such as monoclonal antibodies and CAR-T cell therapies require intermediate purity levels of 99.99%, driving the industry toward functionalization and specialization.
Emerging markets become a second growth driver: Pharmaceutical demand is rising in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, with local companies expanding their overseas footprint through “localized production + regionalized R&D.” A certain company has established an R&D center in Singapore focused on the development of ADC drug linkers.
(3) Industrial ecosystem restructuring and competitive barriers
Vertical integration of the industrial chain is accelerating: upstream and downstream companies are forming closed-loop ecosystems through mergers and acquisitions and strategic collaborations. A certain company has established a pharmaceutical intermediate trading platform to achieve demand forecasting, capacity sharing, and logistics optimization coordination.
Compliance competition has become the core battlefield: under dual pressures from environmental policies and capital markets, companies adopting processes with solvent recovery rates ≥99% have significantly higher customer retention rates than the industry average, and EHS management system certification has become a hard requirement for market access.
Technical Platform Capabilities Determine Market Influence: Companies with manufacturing capabilities for continuous-flow reactors and enzyme libraries will transition from product suppliers to technical solution providers, achieving profit margins 15-20 percentage points higher than traditional businesses.
IV. Investment Strategy
High-Potential Investment Areas
Technology Breakthrough Tracks: High-barrier fields such as chiral compounds, bio-based intermediates, and fluorine-containing intermediates. A certain company's fourth-generation antibiotic intermediates have entered phase III clinical trials and are expected to be launched in 2026.
Green Technology Equipment Market: Manufacturers of continuous-flow reactors, enzyme libraries, and other equipment. A company's developed electrochemical synthesis technology has reduced production costs for vitamin intermediates by 50%, and has secured orders from multinational pharmaceutical companies;
AI+Pharmaceutical Services Platform: Developing AI-assisted R&D platforms. A company's synthetic pathway optimization system, co-developed with DeepSeek, has provided services to over 10 pharmaceutical companies, saving over 200 million yuan in R&D costs annually.
The pharmaceutical intermediates industry is at a critical juncture of technological revolution and industrial transformation, with the industry's value assessment system undergoing a restructuring from a “scale-oriented” approach to one emphasizing “technological premium + compliance capability + ecosystem integration.” Over the next decade, companies with the following characteristics will dominate the competitive landscape:
Technology-driven: Mastering core process platforms such as continuous-flow reactors and biocatalysis;
Market-side: Deeply integrated with innovative pharmaceutical companies and possessing global supply chain management capabilities;
Ecosystem-side: Achieving supply chain synergy optimization through digital platforms.
In this industrial upgrade battle where technology serves as the spear and compliance as the shield, China's pharmaceutical intermediates industry is providing a “Chinese solution” for global pharmaceutical sustainability.
Source: Internet (Zhongyan Network)
