Experts claimed that more Chinese people show interest in mental health disorders in China. The said activity may increase the country's lucrativeness in the antidepressant market in the coming years despite the lack of media advertisements about the condition.
According to a therapist and mental health disorder expert Fang Wang of the University of Surrey, more people in China began talking about mental health disorders, reported Market Watch. She claimed that the social trend shows a significant change in mental health awareness in the country.
In previous years, she said that the country's media policies refrained from the spread of mental awareness in the country. Hence, the change in social interest about the condition may create a more lucrative China regarding antidepressant medication in the future.
The antidepressant industry was labeled as the most lucrative in the United States which is valued at 13.7 billion US dollars in 2018 alone. It is also expected to rise by 2025 and reach a new record high of 15.9 billion US dollars per year, according to BrandEssence market research. Comparatively, antidepressant sales in China only amounted to 8.5 billion US dollars in 2018.
The report exclaimed that the US market is more lucrative than China's today due to rampant media advertisements about mental health.
Conversely, China does not allow TV ads or is more restrictive towards the information shared to its citizens.
Drug companies are only permitted to advertise their products through medical journals and are only often accessible among physicians.
Prior to the social trend of mental health awareness in China, related mental health disorders were often marginalized in China. Fang and her colleague Rober Geyer added that in the past ten years, the use of antidepressants had been a popular topic amongst Chinese people who suffer from depression.
Wang also raised that Chinese pharmaceutical usage is still quite difficult in China. She claimed that undertreated and underrecognized mental health disorders continue in the country.
However, if the country's doctors increase routine screening for mental health disorders, Western drug companies may take more interest in China's market and make it more lucrative than in previous years.
