In half a year, the pharmaceutical company's R&D team has reduced by more than 100 people!

【Pharmaceutical Network Industry Dynamics】In recent years, with the promotion of medical insurance negotiations and the normalization of collection and procurement, pharmaceutical companies are generally facing pressure, in this context, in order to reduce costs and increase efficiency, the organizational structure adjustment of some pharmaceutical companies has been accelerating, and the personnel structure is also being further optimized
.

Among them, sales staff has become the object
of attrition of many pharmaceutical companies.

Taking Hengrui, the "first brother of medicine", as an example, from 2017 to 2020, the company's sales staff showed a rapid expansion trend year by year, from 8461 to 17,100 people, but by 2021, the number has decreased significantly, and has dropped to 13,200 people
.

Behind the drastic layoff of sales personnel by pharmaceutical companies, it is actually a change
in the "heavy sales, light research and development" model of the pharmaceutical industry.

From 2017 to 2021, Hengrui's R&D personnel have increased from the original 2167 to 5478, which has tripled
.

However, according to Hengrui's 2022 semi-annual report, the company's R & D personnel in the first half of the year was more than 5,300, which was more than 100 people compared with more than 5,000 people at the end of 2021
.

In this regard, the industry said that the number of R & D team can not determine the level of R & D, but from the perspective of Hengrui's continuous growth in the proportion of R & D, it can be seen that the company attaches great importance
to innovation.

Judging from the financial data of previous years, the total R&D investment of Hengrui in the past five years has exceeded 20 billion yuan, of which 6.
203 billion yuan was invested in R&D in 2021, and R&D investment accounted for 23.
95%
of revenue.

According to the 2022 interim report, in the first half of this year, Hengrui Pharmaceutical invested nearly 3 billion yuan in research and development, reaching 2.
909 billion yuan, an increase of 12.
74% over the same period last year, and the proportion of R&D investment in sales revenue increased to 28.
44% year-on-year, a record high
.

Under the huge investment in research and development, Hengrui Pharmaceutical has achieved great
innovation.

In the first half of the year, the company developed more than 60 innovative drugs and carried out more than 260 clinical studies
at home and abroad.

During the reporting period, the progress of clinical trials of innovative drugs accelerated, and new drugs and new indications were successively approved for listing, for example, on June 28, 2022, the company's independently developed AR inhibitor revirutamine tablets were approved for listing, and the data showed that since 2011, Hengrui has listed 11 innovative drugs, ranking ahead of domestic enterprises in the same industry; On June 7, 2022, Hengrui announced that the new indications for pyrrolidinib maleate tablets have been approved for marketing, specifically "this product is combined with trastuzumab and docetaxel for neoadjuvant therapy in patients with epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive early or locally advanced breast cancer", which is conducive to further expanding the application
in the field of breast cancer.

At the same time, during the reporting period, the company had 4 products enter the listing declaration stage, including PD-L1 inhibitor Adebeliumab injection, HR20033 tablets, SHR8008 capsules, SHR8554 injection, the treatment areas involving cancer, diabetes, anti-infection, analgesia, etc
.

Among them, SHR8554 injection is a class 1 new drug independently developed by Hengrui Pharmaceutical, which is a small molecule drug
that targets μ opioid receptor (MOR).

According to reports, compared with the classic MOR agonists, SHR8554 reduces the incidence
of common gastrointestinal adverse reactions while producing a similar central analgesic effect.

At present, there is no similar drug on the market in China, and the industry expects that the market potential of the drug is huge, and Hengrui will seize the 30 billion anesthesia market
.

In addition, Hengrui also has 29 clinical studies of more than 20 products such as carellizumab, pirrolinib, apatinib, SHR0302, etc.
, of which 2 have reached the end point of Phase III or International Multicenter Phase III, 7 have entered Phase III or International Multicenter Phase III, 10 have entered Phase II clinical trials, and 10 have entered Phase I clinical trials
.

Disclaimer: In no event shall the information or opinions expressed herein constitute investment advice
to any person.