Lilly Blossoming in China

Lilly (LLY) reports that China revenues are on the rise by about 26% this year. That shows the growth rate of the company is a full 10 percentage points ahead of the pharma market in China (26% for Lilly versus 16% for China).

It also means that China is on track to become the tenth biggest market in the world for the big pharma by 2010. Projections hold that China will become the number 7 market in 2012 and the second largest in just thirteen years – 2020.

In China, Lilly introduced five new drugs this year. It has plans for fifteen additional drugs in the next five years. Lilly already markets the anti-depressant Prozac and the erectile dysfunction drug Cialis in China.

A few years ago, Lilly partnered with Hisun Group to manufacture capreomycin, a drug that is used to fight antibiotic-resistant strains of tuberculosis. Earlier this year, Lilly made a $10 million investment into a late-stage life science venture capital fund that is run by BioVeda, a Shanghai company. The fund will invest only in companies based in China.

Last month, Lilly established a drug discovery collaboration with Hutchinson MediPharma, a division of London-listed Chi-Med. The goal for the partnership is to develop drugs for cancer and inflammation.

For Lilly, the largest group of researchers based outside the U.S. is in China.

Disclosure: none.