In the context of the covid-19 pandemic, healthcare has ranked among the world's most concerned industries. Thanks to the release of medical consumption demand and the guidance of policies to the medical system, the scale of China's big health market has reached 13 trillion yuan, and has developed rapidly in the past 8 years, with a compound annual growth rate of 13%, ranking the second largest market in the world.
How can multinational pharmaceutical companies in the midst of it seize opportunities and better cope with challenges? This has become a major topic of concern. As a science-oriented global healthcare company, GSK has a unique perspective. According to the plan, "New GSK" (hereinafter referred to as "new gsk") will operate independently in the middle of next year, focusing on research and development in immune system science, human genetics and cutting-edge technologies, and will reach sales of 33 billion pounds (US$46 billion at constant exchange rates) in 2031. This also means that GSK's strategic layout in the Chinese market has been adjusted, and the signal of the subsequent shift of focus to innovative biopharmaceuticals has become more and more obvious.
On the occasion of the fourth CIIE, when talking about the positioning of GSK in the Chinese market, Qi Xin, vice president of GSK and general manager of China's prescription drugs and vaccines, said that GSK has been working in China for a hundred years and has been witnessing and actively participating in the reform and opening up of China's medical industry. In the past few years, GSK has relatively slowed down, but this does not mean that we do not attach importance to the Chinese market, but are rethinking the focus of the Chinese market in the new era.
"GSK attaches great importance to sustainable development, and we hope that the follow-up development direction is to truly take its core competitiveness as the guide and steadily re-enter the Chinese market." In fact, we have now entered a state of acceleration, the number of products under development is increasing, and the speed at which innovative products can be brought to market in China has also increased greatly. At the same time, GSK is also moving in the direction of 'globalization', not only strengthening patient-centricity, but also valuing the impact of innovative products on global health. Qi Xin stressed that new GSK will become a biopharmaceutical company that truly focuses on vaccines and innovative drugs.
Demonstrate innovation in all directions
Based on its confidence in the Chinese market, GSK participated in the Expo for the third time this year, with a booth area of 800 square meters, set up six major sections of core prescription drugs, special drugs, respiratory, vaccines, HIV and consumer health care products, and exhibited dozens of prescription drugs, vaccines and consumer health care products, showing GSK's innovative strength in an all-round way. Among them, the blockbuster products exhibited this time mainly include:
First, in the field of anti-AIDS, Doveto (Lamivudine dotiravir tablets): China's first complete, once-daily, single-dose HIV dual-drug treatment plan, approved by the State Drug Administration of China in March 2021, officially launched in China in June 2021, bringing a new treatment option for HIV-infected people in China. At the 2021 CIIE, Doviteau ushered in its "China First Exhibition".
Second, in the field of special drugs, Belitan (beliyuzumab): Since it participated in the Expo in 2019, Beliteng has benefited from the spillover effect of the Expo, and has continued to expand and introduce indications. At this year's Expo, Beliteng unveiled a new indication for lupus nephritis, becoming the world's first biologics approved for the treatment of lupus nephritis and systemic lupus erythematosus. In 2020, the 2020 Peliton Children's Systemic Lupus Erythematosus indications were approved for listing in China within one month after the end of the Expo; in the same year, the adult indications entered the medical insurance, providing the possibility for more lupus patients to receive innovative biologics.
Third, in the field of special drugs, new cola (mepolilizumab): the world's first approved human interleukin-5 (IL-5) biologics. Mepolilizumab has been approved in many countries around the world, including the United States, for the treatment of inflammatory diseases caused by eosinophilia, including eosinophilic severe refractory asthma (sa), eosinophilic granulomatous polyangiitis (egpa), hypereoserophilia syndrome (hes), and chronic rhino-sinusitis with nasal polyps (crswnp).
Fourth, in the field of respiration, Quan Zai Le (flutemavid inhaled powder mist): the world's first triple inhalation preparation once a day for the treatment of stable COPD. Benefiting from the strong influence of the Expo, Quan Zai Le was officially approved during the second CIIE, that is, on November 6, 2019, and quickly landed nationwide after listing, which was highly recognized by patients, doctors and the industry, and was included in medical insurance in 2020.
Fifth, in the field of vaccines, Xin'an Lishi (recombinant herpes zoster vaccine): three times won the Galen Prize, which is known as the "Nobel Prize of the Pharmaceutical Industry", was included in the first batch of 48 clinically urgent new drugs in the country in 2018, and was approved by the State Drug Administration of China in 2019 for the prevention of shingles in adults aged 50 years and above. Since its launch in June 2020, Xin'anlishi has now made appointments for vaccination in nearly 250 cities across the country, covering more than 3,800 vaccination sites.
In recent years, the acceleration of China's drug review and approval has brought unprecedented "policy benefits" to multinational pharmaceutical companies, and the "spillover effect" of the Expo is considered to be an opportunity for multinational pharmaceutical companies to enter the Chinese market faster. Qi Xin said: "The original intention of the Expo is to truly promote a high level of opening up. For foreign-funded enterprises such as GSK, the Expo is a good platform to showcase innovation and promote cooperation. Every time we participate in the Expo, we will not only display innovative products, but also have many projects that cooperate with local government agencies, medical ecosystems and industry partners to jointly promote the advancement of disease management and improve the accessibility of high-quality medical resources. ”
New gsk to achieve cost reduction and efficiency gains
The product layout brought by GSK's Expo is also in line with the current direction of innovation and development of the entire pharmaceutical industry, that is, targeted innovative products that meet the needs of the Chinese market will be introduced to China faster to meet the unmet health needs of more Chinese patients.
The past two decades have been the golden age of deepening the reform of pharmaceutical administration in China's pharmaceutical industry, and it is also the beginning of the upsurge of innovative drugs in China. According to Frost & Sullivan data, the size of China's pharmaceutical market increased from 1,329.4 billion yuan in 2016 to 1,633 billion yuan in 2019, and its market size declined to 1,448 billion yuan in 2020 due to the impact of the epidemic. It is estimated that the scale of China's pharmaceutical market will further reach 1,729.2 billion yuan in 2021. In addition, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the operating income of enterprises above designated size in China's pharmaceutical manufacturing industry increased by 87.4% year-on-year in 2019, reaching 2,390.86 billion yuan.
The scale of China's pharmaceutical market is constantly expanding, and more and more multinational pharmaceutical giants have begun to accelerate the business expansion and strategic layout of the Chinese market. Qi Xin introduced that gsk China's current business segments are more subdivided and highly consistent with global strategic planning. For example, prescription drugs and vaccines have 5 business segments, which coincide with the next 5 product lines: one is the vaccine sector; the second is the core prescription drug; the third is the breathing sector; the fourth is the newly established special drug sector; and the fifth is the HIV sector.
Specific implementation of the business layout in China, gsk is mainly two legs to walk: on the one hand, gsk hopes to give full play to the advantages of foreign companies, to achieve the real China's first and even the world's first, to introduce industry-leading innovative products into China, as far as possible to win the competitive opportunity in advance layout; on the other hand, gsk needs to continue to reduce costs and increase efficiency, so that more products can be more confidently included in the scope of national collection, to meet the needs of more patients for high-quality and excellent products.
"Innovation is gsk's core competitiveness, but the competition of innovative products also involves competition in market pricing. Therefore, GSK will promote more innovative products to participate in national health insurance negotiations and improve patient access to drugs. Qi Xin said.
In addition to product competition, for multinational pharmaceutical companies, their strategic layout in China is inseparable from the support of talents, especially in the case of the rapid development and iteration of the overall pharmaceutical industry, the industry's expectations for talents are naturally higher, which is both an opportunity and a challenge for both local innovative pharmaceutical companies and multinational pharmaceutical companies.
According to the "Strategic Value Report of Rdpac Multinational Corporations China R&D Center" released by the Drug Research and Development Industry Committee of the China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment, multinational enterprises and local pharmaceutical companies have begun to compete in all aspects of research and development, production and sales, and competition is also the booster for the rapid development of China's pharmaceutical innovation capabilities. At present, there is a serious shortage of talents in the innovative pharmaceutical industry, taking the clinical medical department as an example, the current demand for talents in the industry is about 1600, while the supply of talents is only about 1000.
In terms of personnel, GSK is also further accelerating the construction of local talents. It is reported that the team managers of GSK China's five major business sectors of prescription drugs and vaccines are now partly locally trained and the other part is transferred from the Chinese-speaking region of the Asia-Pacific region, so that the layout can better understand the needs of the Chinese market and improve the efficiency of business operations. Qi Xin stressed that new gsk also has a new corporate mission - to bring together science, talent and technology, work together to surpass, and overcome diseases together. Since GSK attaches great importance to science, talent and technology, this means that in the process of promoting the localization strategy, these three aspects will be incorporated into the strategic layout of the enterprise.
Focus on China's strategic layout to promote globalization
From the perspective of the current Chinese pharmaceutical market, under the trend of talent exchange, the cooperation between multinational enterprises and local pharmaceutical companies is gradually strengthening, which has also become an important part of the localization strategy of many pharmaceutical companies.
The "Rdpac Multinational Corporation China R&D Center Strategic Value Report" also shows that the Chinese R&D center of multinational pharmaceutical companies is deeply integrated into the global R&D strategy and system, for example, in terms of clinical trials, China's participation in international multi-center clinical trials has gradually become the new normal for multinational pharmaceutical companies, so that China can better become part of the global R&D network, shorten the time difference between the chinese and European and American markets for innovative products to market, and also provide data support for the global listing of products.
In addition, positive progress has been made in recent years in multiple dimensions such as R&D function setting, clinical trial participation, innovative product listing, and R&D model exploration. In terms of R&D functions, the scale of China's R&D centers of existing multinational pharmaceutical companies has been expanding, and a new round of R&D centers have been completed. At present, the R&D model of multinational pharmaceutical companies in China is more diversified, in addition to self-built R&D centers, in recent years, new attempts have been made, including cooperation with local companies on the development of specific varieties, as well as cooperation with Chinese scientific research institutions and the establishment of innovation and open platforms.
In this regard, gsk is also not left behind. Qi Xin introduced that in recent years, gsk has carried out a full range of layout in Shanghai, first, gsk China's corporate headquarters is located in Shanghai; second, gsk has a Chinese R&D center in Zhangjiang, Pudong, and at the same time established a national commercial operation center in Pudong in July this year.
"The main responsibility of gsk China R&D Center at present is to introduce foreign innovative products into China, conduct research and development synchronously with foreign countries, increase the intensity of early research and development, and some research and development projects focusing on meeting the treatment needs of Chinese patients will be carried out through cooperation with local partners." For example, the GSK Institute of Infectious Diseases and Public Health has entered into a strategic partnership with Tsinghua University to focus on research in the field of infectious diseases, aiming to cultivate outstanding talents for China's pharmaceutical development and medical health undertakings. Qi Xin introduced, in addition, the vision of the global layout, GSK prescription drug sector is currently basically in the form of synchronous research and development, once there are new products in the world, China and the United States will simultaneously carry out phase I clinical trials.
"It is precisely because GSK attaches greater importance to the Chinese market that we have set up a 'Future Product Strategy Group' to study whether the indications for a certain product are in demand in China. If the disease is mainly aimed at european and American populations, there is no unmet demand in China, then we may choose not to participate, but if there is a product that is particularly consistent with the Chinese disease spectrum, the Chinese R&D center in Pudong will be developed simultaneously with the global headquarters, and even from the first phase of the trial to participate in research and development. Qi Xin said.
It is not difficult to find that at the moment when China is striding into the second echelon of global pharmaceutical innovation, the Chinese market is full of unprecedented historical opportunities for multinational pharmaceutical companies. During this period, multinational pharmaceutical companies have accelerated the progress of research and development in the Chinese market, and the realization of global layout has become a major trend at present. In this regard, gsk has undoubtedly been ahead of more enterprises.
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