It's shocking that AstraZeneca is going to sell Indian generic drugs in China!

Indian sun pharmaceutical said yesterday it would launch some of its own anti-cancer drugs in China through AstraZeneca, the UK, media reported AstraZeneca said it was expanding its R & D business in China and would launch a new fund with China International Finance Co., Ltd to invest $1 billion in the Chinese medical industry, Reuters reported According to the documents submitted to the Indian stock exchange, sun pharmaceutical will be responsible for research and development, regulatory declaration and drug production in the transaction, and AstraZeneca will exclusively promote and distribute relevant products in China The financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed, and the initial term of validity of the agreement is 10 years Since last year's pilot program of national volume procurement, Indian generic pharmaceutical companies have been eager to test the Chinese market, repeatedly extending olive branches, and entering China through self built cooperation with domestic pharmaceutical companies and other ways In September, Dr redI Lab of India took the lead in the volume procurement, becoming the supplier of olanzapine tablets in eight provinces, including Zhejiang and Hunan The accuracy of its quotation also made Indian generic pharmaceutical companies start to show their edge But even so, AstraZeneca + India's generic portfolio is still shocking, and the investment period is 10 years, which shows that the strategic layout is not one or several products Zhang Rui, CEO of yaomaitong, said that AstraZeneca's cooperation with Indian pharmaceutical companies once again sent a signal that China's pharmaceutical market is becoming more and more open, but it is not good news for domestic pharmaceutical companies, or even terrible The international competitors of strong alliance have come to the door Indian pharmaceutical companies alone are not terrible But with AstraZeneca, who is familiar with the rules of the Chinese market, the fierce competition of generic drugs in the future has begun! AstraZeneca + Indian generic, why? According to the public information, sun pharmaceutical, founded in 1983, is the largest chronic prescription drug company in India, with more than 2000 kinds of products and sales in 150 markets around the world, covering the treatment of cardiovascular, mental, digestive, respiratory, diabetes and other diseases, and is known as the "king of generic drugs" Dilip shanghvi, founder of sunpharma, once said that China has more than 65% of the generic pharmaceutical market, and we will expand our business in China in 6-9 months, which will contribute "a certain proportion" to the total sales of 4 billion US dollars of sunpharma in three years, but at present, this business is very small According to Shi lichen, founder of Dingchen consulting, Indian pharmaceutical companies have always wanted to enter the Chinese generic market, but they are not familiar with the Chinese market, which is very complex Take the United States as an example After India's generic pharmaceutical companies and commercial insurance companies have reached a cooperation, they can directly produce products and deliver them to them or develop distributors The cooperation is simple But there are provincial rules in every province of China, and there must be a way to enter a hospital For example, with volume purchase, although market access has been simple, the signing of purchase and sales contracts, delivery, payment collection, inventory inspection and so on all need to be followed by a hospital These are not available to Indian pharmaceutical companies focusing on generic production, but AstraZeneca, which has been deeply involved in the Chinese market for many years, has these conditions AstraZeneca has chosen India's generic pharmaceutical enterprises for cooperation On the one hand, new drug research and development progress is slow now Previously, innovative pharmaceutical enterprises almost every year will have heavyweight drugs to market, but these two years have been few Therefore, foreign enterprises have also begun to pay attention to generic drugs and pay more and more attention to the generic drug market For example, Pfizer has established a joint venture with global generics giant mylan, and AstraZeneca's cooperation with Indian generics is the same logic On the other hand, after purchasing with volume, China's future competition rules for chemical drugs have been very clear, that is, high quality and low price, and large-scale competition with low price The cost of generic drugs in India is relatively low, which has enough price advantage compared with domestic generic drugs After the pilot results of volume purchase came out, it was reported that Indian generic pharmaceutical enterprises could supply 30% less than the pilot price Zhang Rui also said that the image of AstraZeneca oath, which was spread in the medical circle some time ago, aims to achieve an annual sales of 15 billion US dollars in China! It's understandable to achieve the goal of opening up the generic market beyond the original research drugs In addition, the low price of Indian medicine is very suitable for China's grass-roots drug market Indian medicine and its original research drugs form a high and low-end market matching product system, which can carry out academic and professional promotion system for different levels of doctors and patients, and form a strong coverage network in medical institutions at all levels, which will greatly squeeze the living space of domestic generic pharmaceutical enterprises Domestic generic drugs ushered in the cooperation between AstraZeneca, a strong rival, and Indian pharmaceutical enterprises, once again transmitting the information of opening up the Chinese pharmaceutical market, and domestic generic drugs ushered in international competitors For so many years, China's pharmaceutical market has been relatively closed, Mr Shi said Due to the reasons of approval and listing, foreign products have entered China very slowly In recent years, the state has carried out drastic reform in examination and approval, and foreign products have entered the Chinese market more quickly In 2017, China's drug regulatory authorities announced their accession to ICH, which means that the time gap between the late listing of international innovative drugs in China will gradually disappear China will simultaneously use international innovative drugs, and Chinese enterprises can also simultaneously register their products internationally The acceleration of global drug listing in China will not only greatly impact the Chinese pharmaceutical industry, break the closed domestic pharmaceutical market, but also open a new era of global procurement of medical insurance In the future, when Chinese medical insurance departments purchase drugs, just like the United States, they will conduct global bidding, so long as the price is appropriate and the quality is reliable, they can purchase drugs Mr Shi said that following these reforms, the procurement rules such as volume procurement are in line with the international standards, and the Chinese generic drug market has been launched Although the price of volume procurement is low, the procurement volume and profit space are relatively stable With the purchase of national health insurance, the potential market will be stimulated rapidly Zhang Rui said that a large part of China's medical and health expenditure will be left to the generic drug market, and given China's huge population base, its market potential can not be ignored In the future, China will become the largest generic drug market and the largest original research drug market at the same time From the actions of Pfizer and AstraZeneca, no matter in the original research market or the generic drug market, any foreign pharmaceutical enterprise wants to give up China's huge generic drug market is attracting more and more international competitors, and domestic enterprises will also be internationalized in the face of competition This kind of competition will be more fierce than before AstraZeneca's strong marketing system is enough to enable Indian drugs to grow rapidly, occupy the rapidly enlarged Chinese drug market, squeeze the development space of domestic production enterprises, and introduce Indian generic drugs may even be a disaster to Chinese generic manufacturers Chinese pharmaceutical companies are increasing R & D investment in succession, but at present, generics is still an important support for performance Only when they earn enough market share in the generics business can they support further R & D and product upgrading Now the international competition is just in the initial stage, the domestic pharmaceutical enterprises should actively seize the opportunity and develop rapidly, in order to continuously improve their survival probability in the fierce competition in the future.