"Chinese medicine dream" of foreign pharmaceutical giants

GSK is purchasing a number of R & D projects of compound Chinese herbal medicine in China recently, while Sanofi and Novartis have also made some moves before This not only reflects the urgent need for foreign giants to seek a strategic breakthrough under the circumstances of a large number of patent drugs due and new drug R & D difficulties, but also reflects the broad prospects and space for the development of Chinese traditional medicine market GSK is not the only one seeking strategic breakthrough to create "Chinese medicine dream" As early as 2009, Novartis announced in a high-profile way that it would research and develop Chinese herbal medicine for the Chinese market and sell "Hydrangea" to acquire Chinese pharmaceutical enterprises with 500 million yuan According to GSK, Sanofi is also making preparations in China In addition, foreign enterprises such as Japan, South Korea and Germany have been applying for patents of traditional Chinese medicine in recent years But the fact is that the recognition of Chinese traditional medicine in the world is not high "In the world, traditional Chinese medicine is more likely to be classified as food At present, no country has opened its market to traditional Chinese medicine." Wang Heng, general manager of Beijing best marketing planning Co., Ltd., points to the bottleneck of internationalization of traditional Chinese medicine On the one hand, "sniff", on the other hand, "favor Canada" What "abacus" do foreign giants play? Wang Ren, general manager of Zhuhai Jifang Biotechnology Co., Ltd., said, "at present, a large number of patented drugs of foreign pharmaceutical companies have expired As a pharmaceutical giant, gsks are bound to make strategic breakthroughs." In his opinion, the limitations of chemical drugs have become more and more obvious, the selectivity is very limited, the difficulty and failure rate of developing new drugs are increasing, and the cycle and cost continue to rise In this context, foreign giants have entered the field of traditional Chinese medicine with a strategic vision To this end, Wang Heng also agreed: "chemical drugs have been" poor ", and fields that can be developed have been developed Looking for new directions is no different from looking for needles at sea price In addition, the research of chemical drugs needs to be screened and summarized in a large number of compounds, which is very difficult On the contrary, it is easier to research and develop traditional Chinese medicine The theory of traditional Chinese medicine accumulated for thousands of years has informed the research direction of traditional Chinese medicine, which can save a lot of research and development time, and the effective ingredients contained in traditional Chinese medicine are a huge treasure house to be excavated " Not only that, traditional Chinese medicine also has its treatment advantages GSK executives said part of the reason for the company's move into traditional Chinese medicine was "the superiority of proprietary Chinese medicine in adjuvant treatment." The market of traditional Chinese medicine for disease prevention is huge If this field is opened, the market capacity will be far beyond the treatment market "With no significant increase in the investment in the pharmaceutical market of other countries, China's investment in the pharmaceutical industry, especially in the traditional Chinese medicine industry, is increasing." Mr Wang said the Chinese medicine market was a big cake Wang Heng also pointed out that "at present, the best selling single drug in the Chinese market is traditional Chinese medicine rather than western medicine." In this context, it is not difficult to understand that foreign giants are targeting the Chinese traditional medicine market The era of eating core product profits has passed Even the giants have to look down to find a way out and dig deep into the market Technology and financial resources are the foundation, even if the prospect is broad, but after all, the concepts of Chinese and Western medicine are different For foreign giants, they are entering a relatively unfamiliar field Moreover, traditional Chinese medicine culture has a long history, and it is not easy for foreign giants to fully understand Traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine are two different concepts Traditional Chinese medicine studies the whole of human beings, while western medicine only studies diseases This cultural difference is very big Wang pointed out that for foreign giants, traditional Chinese medicine is a new field after all, so its entry path may be longer, "and if China's rigid policies prevent it, it will be more difficult." We have to admit that this is a problem for foreign giants to consider when they enter into traditional Chinese medicine, but their advantages are more obvious than their disadvantages "Although foreign giants are relatively laymen, based on their own advantages, they do not necessarily fail to be domestic pharmaceutical companies." Wang Heng said This is because he believes that the advantages of foreign giants are very beneficial to the research of traditional Chinese medicine: first, the advantages of R & D The investment of foreign giants in R & D and their emphasis on R & D are incomparable to Chinese pharmaceutical enterprises It is not difficult to make clear the theory and mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine when using this technology Secondly, foreign giants are rich in funds and have a lot of experience and strength in intellectual property protection, which are the key to R & D of traditional Chinese medicine Thirdly, production advantages If we give full play to the advantages of advanced production technology and strict whole process quality control of foreign giants, we can effectively prevent adverse reactions of traditional Chinese medicine and improve the quality and efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine; fourth, marketing advantages Foreign giants are more standardized and academic in marketing It will be very beneficial to promote traditional Chinese medicine with its expert network and evidence-based medicine The solid foundation of foreign giants is their capital to realize the dream of traditional Chinese medicine At present, it is very difficult for domestic pharmaceutical companies to identify the effective substances in hundreds of plant drugs one by one, but foreign giants have the technical strength and funds in this regard In addition, in the process of government public relations, foreign giants have certain ability to adjust or change the previous rigid management thinking From a certain point of view, the foreign giants dare to enter the unfamiliar field of traditional Chinese medicine, because they know the weakness of the development of domestic traditional Chinese medicine at present, mainly play the role of science and technology, use their own strength to realize the modernization and standardization of traditional Chinese medicine production, clarify the mechanism of ingredients and apply for patents Or the promotion of internal and external factors conducive to the development of traditional Chinese medicine industry makes foreign giants increasingly open their minds to Chinese medicine forms with a history of thousands of years They will use western science and technology to study traditional Chinese medicine, which may be more helpful to explain the concept and mechanism of traditional Chinese Medicine In fact, this approach has long been applied in GSK's Shanghai Research and development center For the idea of R & D of traditional Chinese medicine, foreign pharmaceutical companies tried to use the method of chemical medicine to decompose traditional Chinese medicine into a single component, which actually deviated from traditional Chinese medicine and has not made a major breakthrough Therefore, now they get inspiration from traditional prescriptions, adopt the idea of compound medicine and turn to mixture This idea will be more conducive to the development of traditional Chinese medicine Wang Heng said frankly, "Germany has long allowed plant extracts to be registered as prescription drugs in the legislative process, including compound Chinese herbal extracts; the European Union has also regulated natural plant drugs as a separate category, and regulated them according to their internal quality Europe can be said to be a relatively developed region in plant drug research From this perspective, foreign giants are not entering a completely unfamiliar field, on the contrary, they are even more familiar with Chinese pharmaceutical companies " He said that compared with the current domestic pharmaceutical companies' research on proprietary Chinese medicine, especially traditional Chinese medicine injection, which has fallen into some misunderstandings and bottlenecks, the thinking of foreign giants is more practical, which can also be said to be a progress for traditional Chinese medicine From this point of view, the entry of foreign giants into the field of traditional Chinese medicine may be a good thing for the traditional Chinese medicine industry itself "The technology and theoretical system of Western medicine industry will greatly promote the modernization and internationalization of traditional Chinese medicine." Wang Heng also believes that the intervention of foreign giants can not only improve the attention of traditional Chinese medicine, but also because the "abacus" of foreign giants may not lie in the Chinese market but in the global market, which will help traditional Chinese medicine to move to the international stage and shorten the internationalization process of traditional Chinese medicine Maybe this is another form of protection "Although we have been emphasizing the protection of traditional Chinese medicine, it is not advisable to close the door to protect it from so many years of experience in various industries Only opening the door can be more conducive to the development of traditional Chinese medicine," Wang said For foreign giants themselves, once there is a breakthrough, it is also of great significance for their long-term development "At present, the whole emerging R & D of Chinese patent medicine is relatively blank in China If we can seize this bridgehead, the share in the domestic market is very large." Wang predicted.