2025 Veterinary Drug Congress Sounds Alarm: 60-Billion-Yuan Market Stagnation – Who Will Emerge Victorious in the Industry Reshuffle?

I. Stagnation in the 60-Billion-Yuan Market: Has the Veterinary Drug Industry Hit a "Midlife Crisis"?

The data is sobering: In 2024, China’s veterinary drug market was valued at approximately 60 billion yuan, nearly the same as it was a decade ago. Even more stark is the context behind this figure—a deep adjustment in the livestock industry. Hog inventories decreased by 4.1%, poultry slaughter growth slowed, and pork prices plummeted by 14% year-on-year. As the "hog cycle" shifted from "super profits" to a "deep freeze," medication demand in the breeding sector shrank directly. The foundational market for traditional veterinary drugs is collapsing.

Yet, more alarming than shrinking demand is the "intensified internal competition" on the supply side:

• Homogenization has reached absurd levels: There are over 2,500 approvals for florfenicol powder, more than 1,200 for tilmicosin premix, and over 1,100 for enrofloxacin injections. A single product has thousands of "identical twins," differing only in packaging while offering nearly identical ingredients and efficacy.

• Price wars have reached devastating extremes: The cost of swine vaccines plummeted from 5–6 yuan per head to 0.3–2 yuan per head. Florfenicol powder dropped from 5 yuan per kilogram to just 0.5 yuan. Many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are losing money with every sale.

• The number of companies has nosedived: From 3,000 enterprises (including unregistered ones) in 2010 to fewer than 1,200 in 2024, 80% of SMEs are struggling on the brink of losses, with some already shutting down.

In short, the industry pie isn’t growing, but the number of players fighting for a slice has exploded. The era of easy profits is over.

II. Prevention Over Treatment + Corporate Squeeze: SMEs Face a Dual Stranglehold on Survival

If homogenization is the "internal trouble," then the shift in medication usage and the self-sufficiency of large-scale breeding groups are the "external threats."

Over the past decade, the biggest change in the veterinary drug market has been the shift toward "prevention over treatment." What was once an 80% market share for therapeutic drugs has now been largely replaced by vaccines and disinfectants. The normalization of prevention measures for major diseases like African swine fever and avian influenza has made farms more willing to pay for proactive measures—environmental disinfectants, foot-and-mouth disease vaccines, and porcine circovirus vaccines have become essentials. However, this demand comes with a catch: while stable, growth is slow. Once disease outbreaks subside, emergency procurement drops sharply, making it difficult for companies to rely on "outbreak-driven windfalls" for performance boosts.

Even more致命的是 the "interception" by large-scale breeding corporations. Giants like Wen’s, Muyuan, and Twins Group are no longer content with just "raising pigs." They have built their own animal health businesses: Wen’s reported 364 million yuan in veterinary drug revenue in the first half of 2024, while Muyuan’s vaccine production facilities have an annual capacity exceeding 1 billion doses. These behemoths not only supply themselves but also offer veterinary drugs as part of "breeding services" to partner farmers at cost—or even subsidized—prices. This redirects clients away from SMEs and squeezes profit margins to virtually nothing.

The plight of SMEs ultimately reflects a clash between the "old model" and the "new era." As livestock farming shifts from "small-scale散户" to "corporatization and规模化," and as medication needs evolve from "emergency treatment" to "preventive care," companies that once relied on "generic drugs + relationship-based sales" are being left behind.