Why do China APIs dominate the world?

What Are Pharmaceutical Raw Materials?

Pharmaceutical Raw Materials, in layman's terms, are the raw materials of drugs, and only when they are processed into pharmaceutical preparations can they become clinically applicable medicine, so the drugs we usually take are processed finished drugs.
According to its source, raw materials are divided into two categories: chemically synthesized drugs and natural chemical drugs.

Chemical synthetic drugs can be divided into inorganic synthetic drugs and organic synthetic drugs. Inorganic synthetic drugs are inorganic compounds (very few elements), such as aluminum hydroxide, magnesium trisilicate, etc. used in the treatment of gastric and duodenal ulcers; organic synthetic drugs are mainly made from basic organic chemical raw materials, by a series of organic chemical reactions to produce drugs (such as aspirin, chloramphenicol, caffeine, etc.).

Natural chemical drugs can also be divided into two categories: biochemical drugs and phytochemical drugs, according to their sources. Antibiotics are generally made by microbial fermentation and belong to the biochemical category. In recent years, a variety of semi-synthetic antibiotics have emerged, which are a combination of biosynthesis and chemical synthesis. Among the raw materials, organic synthetic drugs, the largest proportion of varieties, production and output value, is the main pillar of the chemical pharmaceutical industry. Good or bad quality of raw materials to determine the quality of preparations, so its quality standards are very strict, the world for its widely used API have developed strict national pharmacopeial standards and quality control methods.