2014 international pharmaceutical enterprise war: who wins the laurel?

Source: Elsevier 2015-03-10 [Abstract] despite the slight turbulence in the Chinese pharmaceutical market in recent years, the sales volume of multinational pharmaceutical companies in China increased by an average of 12% in 2014, some of which even increased by more than 20% Through combing hundreds of pages of performance reports, Asia pharmaceutical information shows you who are the big winners and their winning strategies, who are the fastest progressors and laggards Beijing - facing the "new normal" of China's market slowdown, intensified competition and still challenging regulatory environment, how can multinational pharmaceutical companies remain invincible? The annual performance of 2014 (see the table below) clearly shows the different ideas of each pharmaceutical enterprise to cope with the market changes Among the 11 multinational companies tracked by Asia Pharmaceutical Information since 2012, the average market growth in 2014 was 12%, slightly higher than 9% in 2013 Compared with the large-scale compliance survey sweeping the industry in the second half of 2013, 2014 can be called a slightly calm year after the storm Sales growth of pharmaceutical giants in China in 2014 note: the data comes from the financial statements of various companies, calculated at a fixed exchange rate Annual growth rate of Roche, Novartis and Merck is the average of quarterly growth rate Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sanofi, Novartis, Novo Nordisk and Lilly data are group data, while Roche data include diagnostic reagents GlaxoSmithKline and Merck data include drugs and vaccines During the year, AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Novartis continued to perform well, with quarterly growth of more than 15% AstraZeneca boasts a 22% annual sales growth in China, followed by Pfizer and Novartis with 18% and 17% respectively Johnson & Johnson, the US drug and medical device maker, rose 15% Although Lilly showed a strong competitive momentum in the first nine months, with an increase of 15-21%, its growth slowed down in the last three months, and its sales volume in emerging markets increased by 11% in the whole year Abbott's sales growth improved quarter by quarter in 2014, and the overall sales growth in emerging markets increased by nearly 13% Emerging markets generate three-thirds of Sanofi's global primary revenue Despite the slowdown, the French pharmaceutical giant is still growing In contrast, Roche, a Swiss company, continues to face strong pressure from its local competitors Novo Nordisk, the insulin maker, was tepid, with sales in China up 13%, the same as last year After a year of anti-corruption investigation, GlaxoSmithKline finally rebounded in the third quarter, but this momentum was reversed in the fourth quarter, resulting in the company's year-round negative growth The fastest progress award was awarded by MSD From single digit to the average speed of supermarket, the American company has made a leap in just a few quarters The winner said that as China's economic growth slows, the average growth rate in 2015 is expected to drop from double-digit to 7% Will this also affect the pharmaceutical industry? Pascal soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca, said: "although the growth of the Chinese market has slowed down, we still feel the strong momentum of growth throughout the year Our sales growth in China has not stagnated, but has remained above 20% every quarter " As the second largest foreign pharmaceutical company in China after Pfizer, AstraZeneca has become one of the fastest growing pharmaceutical companies in China, and China has become the second largest market of the British company in the world Pfizer's superior position in China is due to the strong performance of its mature product market "Although we are still showing seasonal volatility in emerging markets, we are still very satisfied with our performance in China," commented John young, President of Pfizer's mature pharmaceutical business "The most powerful segment, especially the cardiovascular specialty, performed well in Lipitor (atorvastatin) and loxorubicin (amlodipine), as well as in the anti infective business." Abbott's focus is on the adult nutrition market "Although initially we didn't expect much sales, the Chinese adult nutrition market provides Abbott with an important long-term growth opportunity," said Brian yoor, vice president of investor relations "China's elderly population is expected to be four times the number of baby boomers in the United States," he said "We continue to be optimistic about the growth of the Chinese market Throughout the year, we are growing at a double-digit rate and close to that of some European regions, "said Alex Gorsky, CEO of Johnson & Johnson Last year, Novo Nordisk's sales of insulin and protein related products increased by 11% in China "Novo Nordisk's growth in China in the next few years is expected to mainly come from the new insulin and lilalutide combination products," the Danish company said in its annual report The growth trend of pharmaceutical giants in China comes from the fact that corporate financial reports and Asia pharmaceutical information usually keep silent about Lilly, the largest emerging market in China, at the investor conference call on January 30 In the last performance report last October, John Lechleiter, CEO of the US company, listed China and Japan as sales growth highlights "We want to take advantage of the remarkable growth opportunities in Asia, especially in Japan and China," he said at the time In addition, Alfonso zuleueta, President of Lilly emerging markets, commented on this strong growth: "we are very pleased to see strong growth in this quarter and since the beginning of the year Let me make sure everyone understands that although this strong growth is partly due to the successful bidding of ubiquitin in Brazil, part of it is due to the growth of anti infective disposable products in China " However, the company barely mentioned China's sales share this time, only pointed out that "in emerging markets, the performance grew by about 5%, driving sales growth by 7%." Since weibach's departure, Sanofi's emerging market business has faced many challenges The company will continue to focus on this "key growth engine" Over reliance on the Chinese market? In fact, there has been a heated debate about whether MNCs rely too much on growth in China During the last round of quarterly reports, some executives have repeatedly stressed this point "Our success in emerging markets does come largely from China, but also from other countries," AstraZeneca's soriot said at its third quarter earnings meeting on November 6 "It's not about China as a country." This time, soriot also insists on the idea that corporate growth does not depend too much on China "We are often asked, do you rely too much on China? You have seen growth in emerging markets outside China, which is a good trend This growth platform has achieved initial results, and its business share in emerging markets has grown " But some drugs, such as Pfizer's Lipitor, Sanofi's Plavix and Laishi (insulin glargine), and AstraZeneca's asthma treatment drug, budesonide, did almost all of their sales growth come from China, soriot said The reason for the positive demand in China is that the children's indications of the product will increase dramatically, because the number of atomization treatment centers in China has increased sevenfold "The success of pumik is really driven by the Chinese market This is absolutely the Chinese thing This is the most exciting market development I have seen There are many reasons The first one is that this product is used in pediatrics, mainly children's asthma In the past two years, our atomization treatment centers have grown from 200, 300 to more than 2000, and we have funded the establishment of more than 2000 atomization centers in China " Based on the huge scale of China's market and the transformation from inpatient treatment to family treatment, there is a huge space for sales growth "At the moment we are turning to family therapy Because they are in these atomization centers, some patients are certainly exposed to infection, so we try to turn to home atomization treatment " He added: "they did not receive maintenance treatment That's why you see growth in sales of Civico (formoterol) and other drugs, but not in line with the size of China's huge market Therefore, if we do a good job in the education and training of medical staff, there will be great potential for asthma patients to receive maintenance treatment, including in the whole field of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).