Drug approval backlog rose by one-third in 2014

China had more than 18,500 drugs waiting for approval at the end of 2014, up by one-third from a year before, the official Center for Drug Evaluation said on Friday, reflecting industry concern that it is getting harder to get medicines approved in the China market.

Drug company executives say China has toughened the approval process, with companies forced to go through six- to eight-year wait times in the world's second-biggest pharmaceutical market, where spending is set to hit as much as $185 billion by 2018, according to IMS Health.

China's fast-growing healthcare market is a magnet for drug makers, medical device firms and hospital operators, with a broader healthcare bill set to hit $1 trillion by 2020.

However, the sector is riddled with issues from rampant bribery to huge divides between urban and rural care.

China's drug trial center received 8,868 drug applications in 2014, up from 7,610 the year before, according to the annual report Center for Drug Evaluation, overseen by the country's food and drug regulator, and released on Friday.

The organization said it had increased the number of reviews it completed in 2014, but it was outflanked by an increase in new drugs to review.