As an important water-soluble B group vitamin, VB6 is an essential nutritional supplement to humans and animals. The market demand for it has continued to grow in recent years, and its production and sales have shown steady rise in China, with promising prospects.

Steady increase of the production and sales

Many enterprises in the world started the industrial production of VB6 after it was successfully synthesized in 1958. Roche has been the global manufacturing giant over the years, and long monopolizing the world market. China started the relevant industrial production first in 1960. The production process of VB6 is quite complicated, and Chinese enterprises did not have advanced technology in the early stage with yield and quality not reaching the predetermined level, resulting in small production scale, high cost and lack of competitiveness.

Shanghai Institute of Pharmaceutical Industry successfully developed the new VB6 oxazole synthesis process in 1980s that had not many process steps, but high yield and easily controllable quality, greatly reducing the production cost. Many Chinese enterprises adopted such process in succession, leading to the rapid expansion of the production scale, drastic increase of the production, and large cost reduction in China. Its market competitiveness greatly increased and it became a leading global producer in the world.

The production of VB6 in China was accelerated after entering the 21^st century, which was one of the API varieties with the fastest growth at that time, with 800t national output in China in 2000, more than 2000t in 2003, and 5000t in 2009. The current capacity has reached over 9000t in China, with annual production reaching over 5000t. China has eventually become world’s largest manufacturing country and exporting country of VB6 after years of efforts, accounting for about 90% share in the world.

Strong growth in export

Most of Chinese VB6 has been exported over the years, with export volume accounting for over 80% of the production. The export volume was hundreds of tons in 1990s, however, after entering the 21^st century, the export growth momentum has been strong, and continued to create new highs: the export volume exceeded 1000t in 2001, with the export amount of USD 15 million; the export volume was 3000t in 2007, with the export amount of over USD 50 million; the export volume was 4796t in 2014, with the export amount of USD 110.30 million; the export volume exceeded 5000t in 2016, with the export amount of USD 147.08 million, creating another historic high. As one of the API varieties with fastest export growth in recent years, VB6 has successfully risen to the ranks of the four vitamins with USD 100 million export amount; it now ranks third in vitamin export amount, second only to VC and VE. China exported 2691t VB6 with export amount of USD 73.41 million in January-June 2017.

Recent price rise

The market prices of VB6 in China and foreign countries were stable and tranquil over past years, with the export price floating around USD 18/kg, however, the price has started to rise in recent years: the average export price of VB6 in China was USD 14.03/kg in 2014, it rose to USD 22.44/kg in 2015, growing by 59.9% year on year; and it rose to USD 29.33 in 2016, growing by 30.7% year on year.

Promising prospects in the future

The Chinese and foreign markets of VB6 have been analyzed to be optimistic, with broad prospects.

Progress in clinical applications

There have been many new findings and uses of VB6 in the in-depth research conducted by Chinese and foreign medical experts in recent years, and it has participated in many biochemical and metabolic reactions as coenzyme, with the clinical uses constantly expanded. For example, VB6 can be used to treat neurodermitis, eczema, acne, rosacea, pellagra, psoriasis, oral ulcer, neonatal tetanus, Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, tardive dyskinesia, premenstrual syndrome, primary dysmenorrhea, gestational diabetes, asthma, hiccup, vomiting stop, carpal tunnel syndrome, iron poisoning, potassium permanganate poisoning, and urinary calculi caused by VC, etc.

Continued strong market demand

Mainly used as additive of pharmaceutical products, foods, feed, cosmetics and health products, etc., VB6 has now become a product with a wide range of clinical applications, and its tablets and injections have been listed in the medical insurance catalog of China, divided into Class B and Class A. It is also among the first OTC drugs in China, and has over 20 varieties in total: besides the single tablets, there are also the compound nine vitamin tablets, ten vitamin tablets, ferrous sulfate and vitamin tablets, vitamin complex tablets, and multivitamin with multimineral tablets (16), etc. Chinese market consumed over 3 billion tablets of VB6 tablet every year at the beginning of the 21^st century, and the number has grown to over 7 billion tablets, with the injections that were not used much having rapidly grown in the market demand in recent years. The drug penetration of VB6 has reached 95%-100% in large city hospitals in China, according to statistics.

The Chinese market’s demand for VB6 API has continued to grow over the years: the annual consumption was dozens of tons in the Chinese market in 1980s, with narrow applications mainly for medical purposes; the demand was on the rise from 1990s, with large growth every year and the annual increase exceeding double digit; the annual consumption reached dozens of tons in China in the middle of 1990s, and reached over 100t at the end of the 20^th century; the demand growth has become stronger in the dozen years after entering the 21^st century, currently reaching over 1000t.

Enormous potential in other applications

VB6 is also an important feed additive, with the general additive amount of: 1-3mg/kg for pig feed, 3-5mg/kg for laying hen feed, 4-6mg/kg for broiler feed, and 3-50mg/kg for fish feed; the dosage in this aspect is large and exceeds that for pharmaceutical use. The economies of China, emerging economies and the broad developing countries have been growing steadily with people’s living standard continuing to increase in recent years, and the demand of the billions of people in those countries for poultry, meat and eggs, etc. is very strong—such a huge market continues to promote the rapid development of the breeding industry. The breeding industry of China is now in the accelerated development period, and the annual production of various feed in China has reached over 200 million tons, advancing at the speed of annual growth of over 8 million tons. The proportion of feed added with various vitamins, etc. in all the feed has continued to rise in recent years, from the 20% at the beginning of the 21^st century to 50% at present amount to over 100 million tons, and this trend will continue in future. The rigid demand of the Chinese and foreign markets for feed additives like VB6 is expected to be huge in future.

By Zhang Lun