CBI member, AstraZeneca has made public its intention to transition its China business from sales of off-patent medicines towards new and innovative treatments harnessing the Cambridge-based company’s proprietary technology.
AstraZeneca expects new and innovative treatments to contribute to 60% of its China revenue by 2024, up from just a fraction now, as the country’s push to bring novel therapies faster to the market opens up opportunities for global drug makers.
Leon Wang, AstraZeneca executive vice-president for international markets said that AstraZeneca’s sales from newer drugs will likely overtake what the company currently earns from off-patent medicines in the next five years.
China’s contribution to AstraZeneca’s global revenues has jumped from 5.4% in 2012 to 18% in 2018, overtaking Europe as the drug maker’s second-biggest market.
Speaking on the opportunities for AstraZeneca in China, Mr. Wang said: “New drug sales [in China], in terms of proportion, are just getting bigger and bigger. It doesn’t mean that off-patent drugs will decline, but new products are just growing faster. […] the efforts from the [Chinese] government [to encourage foreign pharmaceutical products into the market] are very, very obvious. This will ultimately benefit innovative pharmaceutical companies in the US and Europe.”
Foreign drug manufacturers have found a much more manageable business environment in China in recent years, following the decision of China’s Food & Drug Administration to abolish a rule that had required companies to repeat all drug trials in China before receiving regulatory approval in 2017. Now, big pharmaceutical companies in China can use foreign data to receive approval and launch drugs in sync with their US and European operations.
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