Foreign Enterprises in China | First Three Companies: Working Together with China, Contributing to a Healthy China in Development
2024-08-01
Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, China's degree of opening up to the outside world has continued to deepen, accelerating China's industrial upgrading and economic structure optimization, and generating positive driving effects for building a new development pattern. At the same time, foreign-funded enterprises participating in the Chinese market have also enjoyed the dividends of growth, achieved their own business expansion and competitiveness improvement, and presented a mutually beneficial and win-win situation. Recently, Hongxing Aoze, President and Chief Operating Officer of First Sankong, said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency: "In the more than 30 years of development in China, we have witnessed the implementation of a series of measures by the Chinese government to relax foreign investment access, expand the scope of encouraging foreign investment, and optimize the business environment. This has brought new development opportunities to many foreign-funded enterprises, including First Sankong, and further strengthened our confidence and determination to deeply cultivate the Chinese market. We will continue to pay attention to the constantly evolving medical needs of the Chinese market, provide innovative solutions, and benefit the vast number of Chinese patients." It is reported that First Sankong is a global innovative pharmaceutical enterprise with more than 120 years of history, always adhering to "research and development of innovative drugs", putting patients at the center, and meeting the needs of Chinese patients. Our mission is to meet diverse medical needs, Improve the quality of life and well-being of people around the world. San Gong has continuously developed drugs for the treatment of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, as well as basic therapeutic drugs such as antibiotics and analgesics. Since 2010, Daiichi Sankyo has gradually focused on the oncology field where there is still a huge unmet medical need. In 2023, the first DXd ADC drug, T-DXd, for the treatment of HER2 positive advanced breast cancer and HER2 low expression metastatic breast cancer, was approved in China, bringing a more accurate treatment plan for Chinese cancer patients. As one of the important pharmaceutical manufacturing countries in the world, the stable growth of China's pharmaceutical industry demonstrates the tremendous resilience and vitality of China's pharmaceutical economy development. The joint efforts of policy optimization, technology and institutional innovation have become an important engine for the high-quality development of China's pharmaceutical economy. In March, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Action Plan for Solidly Promoting High level Opening up and Attracting and Utilizing Foreign Investment with Greater Efforts", which proposed to further "continue to promote the expansion of opening up in the medical field". Aoze Hongxing stated, "China is becoming one of the important driving cores in the global development map of the First Three Communist Party. Our 2030 development vision is to become an innovative global healthcare company that contributes to sustainable social development. The First Three Communist Party will closely align with the Healthy China 2030 construction blueprint in its continuous growth journey, continue to contribute its own strength, and jointly promote the achievement of the Healthy China goal." "In the process of realizing the company's development vision, advanced science and technology and innovative research and development are the key to helping improve patients' lives, which is also the key investment direction for us to expand our business in China and build new quality productivity," Aoze Hongxing further said, As a company focused on new drug research and development, Daiichi Sankyo is committed to continuously providing transformative innovative products to patients worldwide through highly specialized talent resources, high-level scientific research and innovation capabilities, and an open and inclusive corporate culture. We aim to solve the unmet needs of patients and maintain sustainable growth. According to the introduction, in Daiichi Sankyo's five-year business plan from 2021 to 2025, four strategic pillars have been established. In addition to expanding the clinical development and commercial operation of five DXd ADC drugs (T-DXd, Dato DXd, HER3 DXd, I-DXd, and R-DXd) and focusing on proprietary patented drugs represented by Lixian'an, Daiichi Sankyo will also increase research and development investment. Daiichi Sankyo is expected to invest nearly 2 trillion yen in research and development funds and 800 billion yen in production equipment funds to ensure the smooth development and launch of its five ADC drugs and next-generation pillar drugs (Next Wave), and promote digital transformation (DX), building an "intelligent supply chain" based on data visualization and data integration, and achieving refined management. In China, Daiichi Sankyo is continuing to deepen its investment structure and will further expand the production capacity of its Shanghai factory in basic drugs and oncology drugs, thereby improving the efficiency and scale of drug supply in China, so as to provide innovative drugs to more Chinese patients faster and meet the constantly changing needs of patients. In terms of innovative research and development, the First Three Communist Party fully leverages China's innovative advantages in talent resources, policy environment, etc., promotes local research and development production, and develops new quality productivity. Masao Uchida, President of the First Three Communist Party of China, introduced that the company is making every effort to promote China to become one of the key global research and development centers. At present, the Chinese R&D team has fully participated in the clinical development of its five innovative ADC drugs and follow-up products, and has carried out about 30 clinical studies, involving multiple cancers such as breast cancer and lung cancer, which will provide more treatment options for Chinese cancer patients. At present, the First Three Communist Party is continuously strengthening its cooperation mechanism in China's research and development. The Chinese R&D team has also become the first tier of the First Three Communist Party Group's global development plan, joining the global early clinical research and development, allowing Chinese innovation to be more deeply integrated into the global value chain. Aoze Hongxing stated, "Thanks to the open and inclusive policy environment of the Chinese government, Daiichi Sankyo can simultaneously practice the corporate culture of One DS in China, allowing all our employees to communicate equally, promoting in-depth exchange and interoperability of the group's drug research and development experience and technology, effectively improving our scientific research capabilities and innovation level, and even promoting the overall upgrading of the health industry structure." Under these favorable conditions, Daiichi Sankyo's commercial operations are expected to achieve further growth, and it is expected that by 2025, its global revenue will reach 2.1 trillion yen, of which the revenue from the oncology business will exceed 1 trillion yen, fully entering the high growth stage. In the future, with the continuous deepening of China's medical system reform and the continuous optimization of drug review and approval policies, the First Three Communist Party will surely participate more deeply in the reform and development of China's medical and health industry, and safeguard the health of the Chinese people Aoze Hongxing emphasized. Building a dual support structure to better meet the needs of Chinese patients. With the deepening of China's modernization process, chronic non communicable diseases have gradually replaced infectious diseases as a new challenge in the field of health, among which chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and chronic respiratory diseases are particularly common. In response to this, Long Tail Gong, the head of the Asia and Central South America region (ASCA) of First Sankong, stated, "Our research and development and production strategies have always been focused on meeting the unmet treatment needs of patients and reducing their disease burden, so that our products can benefit more patients faster. With a solid foundation in the market through innovative business, we can achieve sustainable development. This is the original intention and vision of our enterprise. Therefore, First Sankong has built a dual support pattern to respond to the constantly evolving medical needs of the Chinese market, on the one hand, mature basic treatment drugs, and on the other hand, anti-tumor new drugs." It is reported that First Sankong is continuously deepening and expanding its pipeline of basic treatment products in China. At present, it has covered many treatment fields including analgesia, respiration, anti infection, anticoagulation, lipid-lowering, and blood pressure lowering. This series of key drugs has gained widespread recognition from patients and doctors not only in terms of efficacy, but also in terms of safety, and has been included in various clinical treatment guidelines and expert consensus. In June 2024, Delijing, a pain treatment drug of DS, was approved in China to treat adult diabetes peripheral neuropathic pain (DPNP). Clinical research shows that Delijing can significantly improve the overall impression of pain and sleep of patients, improve the quality of life, and is expected to bring more effective pain treatment for diabetes patients, and promote the establishment and development of clinical treatment standards. In addition, Daiichi Sankyo has continuously accelerated its innovation and upgraded its classic drugs such as Loxoprofen Sodium. It has developed innovative patch preparations with higher drug loading and larger coverage areas, providing patients with more convenient, efficient, and safe treatment methods, continuously improving public health, and better benefiting the vast number of Chinese patients. In the field of tumor treatment, the First Three Joint Venture is also actively innovating tumor treatment models and providing innovative solutions for cancer patients. It is reported that Daiichi Sankyo has established a unique DXd ADC technology platform that integrates science and technology, which is used to develop precise targeted, efficient, and low toxicity ADC (antibody conjugated drug) series drugs. DXd ADC drug T-DXd developed based on this platform has been approved for two indications in China in 2023, bringing new treatment options for HER2 positive advanced breast cancer and HER2 low expression metastatic breast cancer patients, improving patients' quality of life and prolonging their survival period. Its indications for gastric cancer and lung cancer are also about to be approved in China. Two other drugs under development, Dato DXd and HER3 DXd, will also be launched in China in the future. At present, there are more than dozens of registered clinical studies of tumor DXd ADC drugs on the market and under research in DS, covering breast cancer, gastric cancer, lung cancer and other cancers, bringing high-quality medical solutions to more cancer patients. Changwei Gong said, "In order to better serve patients, First Sankong is establishing global development and commercialization partnerships with industry leaders such as AstraZeneca and Merck, jointly promoting the research and development and market launch of products such as Ujed, Dato DXd, HER3 DXd, I-DXd, R-DXd, etc., further improving the accessibility and affordability of drugs, continuously demonstrating our commitment to Chinese patients, and allowing First Sankong to continue to unleash vitality in the Chinese market Hand in hand, responsibility first, create a new era of healthy future. Currently, more and more foreign enterprises in China are fully integrating into the overall high-quality development of the Chinese economy and society, actively taking on social responsibilities, and injecting new momentum into China's sustainable development through practical actions. Aozawa Hiroyuki also stated, "We firmly believe that action in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) is crucial, and this has been deeply integrated into the business development of Daiichi Sankyo. We not only need to do our products well, but also take on more responsibilities in social governance to contribute to long-term sustainable development." Uchida Shofu added that Daiichi Sankyo is deeply integrated into the development process of China's pharmaceutical industry, working together with partners, taking social responsibility, taking various measures to commit to environmental protection, and promoting health awareness improvement projects centered on patients. In addition, we are committed to the cultivation and development of medical talents through the establishment of scholarships and the launch of youth physician training programs. We look forward to more and broader cooperation, with the health of the Chinese people at the center, to help more patients improve their disease awareness, obtain higher quality medical treatment, and make practical contributions to improving the overall health level of China Yoshio Uchida emphasized, "In the future, the First Three Communist Party will continue to participate deeply in the construction of China's new medical and health system, accelerate the landing of more innovative achievements in China, and reach Chinese patients more widely. While realizing the First Three Communist Party's 2030 vision, we will also help achieve the great goal of 'Healthy China 2030'