Recently, the "Belt and Road Initiative" International Cooperation Summit Forum held in Beijing attracted distinguished guests from all over the world. After more than three years of development, the Belt and Road Initiative （BRI） has changed from theoretical conception to innovative practice and entered a new stage of promoting practical cooperation in an all-round way. The thousand-year Silk Road is expected to re-start a new journey to success. Under the grand strategy of BRI, how should pharmaceutical companies catch the wind and set sail?
BRI provides development basis for medical and health exchange
As one of the important indicators of social development level, health care is a livelihood issue that governments around the world are focusing on. The implementation of the BRI strategy and the promotion of health exchange and cooperation with foreign countries provide good opportunities for the development and transformation of China's health industry. With the deepening of industrial cooperation and service trade among countries along the route, China's pharmaceutical and medical device industries, as well as health information technology and other related industries, will also develop rapidly.
Since the founding of New China, great achievements have been made in the development of China's medical and health undertakings, and the national health level has been greatly improved, forming many approaches and practices from which developing countries can learn. Promoting BRI health exchange and cooperation can not only increase the supply of health services and products, but also accelerate the technological innovation of health service modes and pharmaceutical products. Moreover, it is conducive to promoting economic restructuring, releasing and stimulating consumer demand, accelerating the growth of trade in services, and making important contributions to the formation of a new pattern of all-round opening up of the country.
BRI brings both opportunities and challenges to Chinese pharmaceutical companies
BRI is an important strategy for China's economic development. With the expansion of its influence, more countries and regions will strengthen economic and trade cooperation with China, which provides development opportunities for Chinese pharmaceutical companies.
The health industry in China has obvious advantages compared with that in the countries along the BRI route: a complete industrial chain, early industrial development and a better foundation; abundant production capacity, with more than 4,000 domestic pharmaceutical companies, and a wealth of medical and health industry resources; abundant capital, as China is one of the major countries that attract capital investment.
In 2016, the State Council issued a circular on the 13th Five-Year Plan for Deepening the Reform of the Medical and Health System, which calls for actions to "accelerate the consistency evaluation of the quality and efficacy of generic drugs, encourage the creation of new drugs, and encourage clinical value oriented drug innovation". The release of policies and the continuous emergence of important basic research results have pushed innovation-driven pharmaceutical companies into the best era of development. From generic to innovative, Chinese pharmaceutical enterprises have great potential for growth.
However, having advantages does not mean being able to go global successfully, as there is still a big gap between local pharmaceutical enterprises and international leaders. Under the BRI strategy, how to stimulate the potential and promote the improvement of the quality and quantity of new drugs in China will be a common problem in the industry for a long time to come.
Lianyuangang R&D Center
Under the guidance of BRI, Hansoh Pharma is always on the road
Hansoh Pharma has always adhered to the strategy of scientific and technological innovation, maintained high-intensity investment in scientific research, and vigorously built its scientific and technological innovation team. The domestic first-class R&D platforms and mechanisms established in Lianyungang headquarters, Zhangjiang of Shanghai, and New Jersey of the US have not only cultivated top domestic R&D talents internally, but also attracted elites from all over the world to join in, providing core impetus for Hansoh Pharma to successfully achieve transformation, upgrading and leapfrog development.
Under the innovation-led enterprise operation mechanism, Hansoh Pharma has a strong development momentum, and is making steady and continuous development in the international market on the basis of existing achievements. Hansoh Pharma has more than 10 backbone products with annual sales exceeding RMB 100 million, ranked top one for psychotropic drugs and top three for anti-tumor drugs in the domestic market. The company's first national Class 1.1 anti-infective drug, Mailingda （Morinidazole and Sodium Chloride Injection）， was successfully launched in 2014 after 12 years of R&D. In addition, more than 10 innovative drugs are in different stages of clinical research. Since its initial API export to the US in 2003, Hansoh Pharma has accumulated more than 10 years of high-quality manufacturing experience, with two preparation products being launched in the US and one passing Japan's PMDA certification. The new pharmaceutical industrial park built by Hansoh Pharma according to EU standards has become an industrial base for innovative drugs and high-end export preparations, with leading manufacturing capacity and automation level of high-end drugs in China.
In order to improve the operation level and product quality in an all-round way, Hansoh Pharma has been actively promoting the standardization of the industry technology & information technology integration management system and the performance evaluation system in recent years, and has made great improvements in production facilities, production management, product quality, marketing, information technology and enterprise operation, etc. In 2016, Hansoh Pharma successfully passed the provincial "industry technology & information technology integration" certification.
In the future, Hansoh Pharma will rely on the national BRI strategy led by China, insist on driving transformation and upgrading through scientific and technological innovation, enhance its core competitiveness, accelerate the go-global process, and strive to build itself into a world-class pharmaceutical enterprise group.
At the same time, the adjustment of the payment method and scope of medical insurance, as the most important payer in the pharmaceutical industry, will also gradually guide the pharmaceutical industry towards innovation. With the increase of medical insurance funds, the support for reimbursement of innovative drugs may also become a catalyst for the research and development of innovative drugs.
