Companies prepare for another challenging year.

“Our research for this report shows that 2004 will be another difficult year for PFCs; recovery is not foreseeable until mid-2005,” said Edwin Bailey, managing director, Urch Publishing. “Although things are looking up, it is unclear how significant the improvement will be. Our report indicates that companies will be forced to make difficult decisions in the next three years with industry-wide rationalisation and consolidation appearing inevitable as companies struggle to deal with overcapacity, competition from emerging markets and regulatory burdens.”

The report shows that there is some positive news on new drug approval which means more new products coming through and the subsequent outsourcing of fine chemical intermediates and active pharmaceutical ingredients will pick up, though the market is unlikely to recover to previous levels. The $10 billion -$12 billion market for pharma fine chemicals could achieve growth of 5% a year or more, creating at least $500 million a year of additional sales.

Overcapacity, of between 25 and 40 percent, remains a problem, and will remain so in intermediates and active pharmaceutical ingredients due to the substantial new capacity brought on-line over the past five years, the excess capacity caused by fewer new drug approvals and the resulting in-sourcing by big pharma, says the 170 page report. Fine chemical overcapacity has led to two or more years of declining profitability, resulting in plant closures and goodwill write offs, however, there is a general consensus that the bottom has finally been reached.

Pressure on price will continue particularly given the increasing acceptance of products from Indian and Chinese suppliers.

Key features of Global Pharmaceutical Fine Chemicals – Industry and market analysis include:

• Mention of over 200 pharmaceutical and chemical companies

• Ranks the word’s leading producers of chemical intermediates and fine chemicals for the life sciences industry

• Description of key customers of PFC and their influence on suppliers

• Review of emerging technologies and products

• Assessment of what makes a successful PFC business and value of the business

• Extensive forecasts and analysis of the industry future.

The publication contains extensive profiles of leading companies including - BASF AG, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Cambrex Corporation, Central and Eastern Europe, China, Cipla Limited, Clariant, Degussa AG, DSM Fine Chemicals, Eastman Fine Chemicals, Kaneka, Krka D.D, Lonza Group Ltd, Merck & Company, Inc., North China Pharmaceutical Group Corporation, Pliva D.D., Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, Roche Group, Sankyo Company, Limited, Shijiazhuang Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd, Sigma-Aldrich, Takeda Chemical Industries and The Rhodia Group Ltd.

Global Pharmaceutical Fine Chemicals – Industry and market analysis is available from Urch Publishing in print or PDF formats. For full table of contents go to www.urchpublishing.com.  Urch Publishing Ltd is an independent business information publisher dedicated to delivering quality information products to the global chemicals and pharmaceuticals industry. For more information contact Urch Publishing on

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Urch Publishing Ltd is an independent business information publisher dedicated to delivering high quality information products to the global pharmaceuticals industry.