OBJECTIVE：To assist enterprises to understand the technical points a nd development trend of pharmaceutical intermediates industry ，and to provide new development ideas and technical support for pharmaceutical intermediates application technology. METHODS ：Taking the core technology involved in pharmaceutical intermediates as the research object and divided into four levels ，the patent data of pharmaceutical intermediates published （announced）before Feb. 2nd，2020 in State Intellectual Property Office （SIPO），INCOPAT and PatSnap patent databases were searched. Patent analysis method was used to analyze the patent application trend and patent applicants of pharmaceutical intermediates ，and the secondary and tertiary technologies of pharmaceutical intermediates were analyzed in detail. Finally ，SPSS 24.0 software was used for curve fitting prediction analysis of the number of patent applications for pharmaceutical intermediates in China. RESULTS ：A total of 12 103 related patents were retrieved. Under the secondary technology classification ，there were 331 patents for antibiotic drug intermediates ，474 patents for antipyretic and analgesic drug intermediates ，1 227 patents for cardiovascular drug intermediates ，and 1 550 patents for anticancer drug intermediates. The numbers of patent applications for pharmaceutical intermediates in the world and China were increasing year by year ，and Chinese mainland had the largest number of patent applications. The number of patent applications in Jiangsu ， Shanghai and Shandong ranked the top 3. Among the top 10 patent，8 were domestic enterprises or universities ，and they also ranked the top 2 in the composition of pharmaceutical intermediates applicants in China. Among the secondary technologies of pharmaceutical intermediates ，cardiovascular pharmaceutical intermediates accounted for the largest proportion of patent applications （32％），followed by anticancer pharmaceutical intermediates （30％）. Among the tertiary technologies ，there were patent applications for the products （35％），methods（35％）and uses （28％）of pharmaceutical intermediates. The curve fitting of the number of patent applications for pharmaceutical intermediates in China showed that the current trend of patent applications was the best fitted with the cubic curve model ，and it was predicted that the number of patent applications in 2020 and 2021 will be 688 and 781 respectively. CONCLUSIONS ：The technology of pharmaceutical intermediates has developed rapidly in China ，and universities and enterprises have considerable R&D strength. In addition to expanding in technological innovation ，enterprises can also consider the development idea of school-enterprise cooperation and patent cross licensing among enterprises to help the better deve lopment of China ’s pharmaceutical intermediates industry.