China's government invests over 6 billion U.S. dollars to support innovative drug research

Kuang Ling, the general manager of Quintiles Greater China, believes that in the next five years, ten years, or even twenty years, pharmaceutical R&D, medical treatment, and product health care will likely become the pillar industries of China's national economy. Moreover, according to our observations, China's development in this industry is entirely likely to catch up with the world's advanced level.

It is said that during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, the government plans to invest at least 6 billion US dollars to support the research of innovative drugs, and China is at the most crucial moment before the dawn of innovative drug research.

The government supports research and development of new drugs. According to Yu Ling, China's innovative drug R&D is at a historic turning point. This is because there are already dozens of pharmaceutical companies in China that are beginning to engage in true research and development. On the other hand, R&D momentum is inseparable from the government's support and encouragement.

Yan Ling told reporters, "The Chinese government has rarely supported the development of innovative drugs in the world, and an obvious trend is that government support is increasing."

For example, there are Zhongguancun in Beijing, Zhangjiang in Shanghai, and life science parks in Suzhou, etc. Many parks have strong policies to support the research and development of pharmaceutical companies. For example, there are “three exemptions, three reductions, and half reductions” that people are familiar with in taxation. That is, if there is a pharmaceutical research company coming to the park to settle in, the local taxes in the first three years will be completely eliminated, and then the next three years will be a Fifty, it will withdraw you fifty percent, so this support is quite large.

Not only that, the government also allocated a few billion yuan of funds to do research and development of new drugs before and after, and supported the development of the GCP platform (Good Clinical Practice).

Since 2008, GCP platforms established by domestic research institutes or hospitals have sprung up. China has begun to exert its force on the weakest drug clinical trials. In the first half of 2012, Shanghai Renji Hospital said that 8 hospitals across the country have conducted multi-center trials on the GCP platform they have built, and at the same time its National Drug Evaluation Center has jointly formulated the guiding principles for the development of new antiviral hepatitis drugs in China. Get some breakthroughs.

In fact, the GCP platform's important role in R&D of new drugs is to increase the R&D level of the platform through government funds, and R&D products can be transferred to companies for operations when they have a certain commercial value.

Yan Ling told reporters, “The entire pharmaceutical R&D process will probably require billions of dollars in investment. The biggest investment risk is in the past few years, because the previous years still belong to the stage of short-term R&D in the lab. No one knows if this thing is effective. Therefore, general commercial organizations are not willing to make early investments. This is precisely the shortcomings of Chinese pharmaceutical companies engaged in the development of innovative drugs."

"And the Chinese government provides a platform for early-stage funding that can well solve the above problem. After the public platform achieves a certain amount of medical value in a certain clinical stage, this time not only venture capital, foreign and domestic commercial organizations are willing to come in. It is equivalent to the government helping companies to survive the previous stage where the commercial risk is high and the average investor is unwilling to invest."

However, for the new drug R&D model supported by the government, some people in the industry questioned it and stated that “China is starting from CRO and it is a standardized CRO. Through cooperation with foreign companies, we can learn the process and rules. It is good to train a group of people, but it is a big mistake to say that CRO is the future of new drugs in China. CRO has no independent research and development, and even if you think, foreigners will not agree. To cultivate a competitor for no reason, No one is a fool."

Sun Feiyang, chairman of Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (“Huirui”) pointed out: “The innovation of the pharmaceutical industry in China is in a vicious circle. Because the pharmaceutical industry in China lacks a truly large-scale enterprise, pharmaceutical companies have not really become pharmaceutical R&D. The main body."

Sun Fengyang said that the concentration of the top 10 domestic pharmaceutical companies is only 18%, there are a large number of small enterprises; 70% of new drugs approved in China have been listed abroad, but the real one is less than 1%; domestic pharmaceutical companies do not have International R & D competitiveness.

At the same time, local pharmaceutical companies mostly rely on generic drugs. Low-price competition and low profit rates have limited the development of enterprises. New drug R&D is dominated by state-owned research institutes and universities, and corporate R&D investment accounts for less than 3% of sales. %.

However, there are many shortcomings in the new drug R&D model led by state-owned research institutes and universities and colleges. The most important is the lack of a market-oriented operating path. State-owned research institutes and universities and colleges are mostly supported by government research funding and receive government support. The main method of support is reporting issues.

According to media reports, “the state will allocate special funds of several billion yuan to support the research and development of new drugs, and related companies will be short-listed through the application of the project. According to the requirements, the new drugs to be listed must have broad market development prospects and can solve the most pressing major diseases. Prevention and control of epidemics."