High-quality development key for big pharma
Editor's note:
High-quality growth, the most-mentioned phrase during the Two Sessions, will keep guiding China's new route of development. As a bellwether city, Shanghai takes a model role in mapping out a growth of high quality, and here are what we find in different sectors of our life.
Shanghai aims to add 60 regional headquarters from multinational companies this year.
Innovation is the keyword for leading multinational pharmaceutical companies as they pledge high-quality development in the country.
Top pharmaceutical companies are banking on the strong science and innovation ecosystem in China to further strengthen their foothold.
Shanghai aims to add 60 regional headquarters from multinational companies, and 25 foreign funded research and development institutions this year, and encourages innovation partnership in a wide range of fields.
The city hopes to keep the positive momentum. The size of the actual use of foreign investment is expected to remain stable this year.
The number of research and development staff at the Global R&D China Center located in Shanghai is expected to reach 900 by the end of this year.
A typical multinational firm of such is Astra Zeneca, which is beefing up local innovation through partnership to work on new therapies. It views China as an important source of new research partnership.
"With the pace of innovation and expansion of the biotech industry here in China, I do expect there would be more opportunities for us to collaborate and partner with Chinese companies," said Susan Galbraith, executive vice president of oncology research and development at AstraZeneca.
It views the local innovation site an important link to its global research network. It expects the number of researchers at the Global R&D China Center located in Shanghai to reach 900 by the end of this year.
It's already seeing new medicines developed in China in parallel with the speed of global R&D, and even in some areas local innovation is potentially leading.
She also visited academic and medical institutions during the two-week stay as the company seeks more research partners on translational medicine research as well as the mechanism of sensitivities and resistance of cancer treatment.
One of it collaborators is Cellular Biomedicine Group in Shanghai. The two parties are developing a novel therapy for liver cancer.
AstraZeneca also gained an exclusive license for the research, development, registration, production, and commercialisation of an antibody from local Harbour BioMed for pancreatic cancer and certain types of gastric cancer.
Another case goes to Boehringer Ingelheim that has pledged investment in production expansion, research and clinical expenditure of as many as 90 million euros (US$97.8 million) over the next five years.
"China remains a focus market for BI, and we see abundant opportunities in innovation and digitalization pioneering in China that could be brought to the rest of the world," said Pavol Dobrocky, president and CEO of Boehringer Ingelheim China.
Expanding local collaboration remains the company's focus to become an important part of Shanghai and China's ecosystem, he noted.
"Innovation, digitalization, and sustainable development are converged as the three major initiatives to drive our future growth in China," he added.
In the animal health field, it plans to add 15 new products and indications in the next five years, and it aims to offer wholistic animal health solution by combining local digital capabilities.
Digital transformation is also a strategic pillar which already cover areas such as development, clinical trials, manufacturing and commercialization
Its digital home rehabilitation platform Consanas Cloud was released last year, which is the first local digital solution conceived by its digital innovation lab BI X since it was set up in 2020.
Its rare skin disease medication spesolimab is ready for commercial launch in the near future following approval from China's National Medical Products Administration in December, which is almost simultaneously registered along with the rest of the world.
Currently it carries out 14 early-stage clinical projects in the areas including oncology, pulmonary fibrosis, immunology with leading domestic hospitals in parallel with global research initiatives.
Digital innovation lab BI X was set up in 2020 and its first local solution was unveiled last year for stroke patients.
