The competition of innovative drugs is fierce, China's market has become a hot spot for foreign pharmaceutical enterprises to invest

Source: on February 15, 2017, the performance of foreign pharmaceutical companies on chinapharma.com was generally good last year Although some pharmaceutical companies haven't announced their performance in 2016, it seems that there is no doubt that Johnson & Johnson's position as the sales leader in 2016 In terms of market, the emerging market represented by China has not only become a competition field for pharmaceutical companies, but also provides rich profits and greater imagination space The results are generally good According to the 2016 financial report of Johnson & Johnson, it achieved sales of USD 71.89 billion in 2016 Although the growth rate is only 2.6% compared with last year, in absolute value, it has exceeded the total sales of three companies in 2016, i.e Albright, AstraZeneca and Lilly For a long time in the past, Pfizer, Roche and Novartis have basically occupied the top three positions in the global sales of multinational pharmaceutical companies The difference lies in the change of internal positions of the top three But such a pattern is being broken gradually in recent years, and the former king is facing great pressure from his competitors Johnson & Johnson, which jumped to the top of the list this time, has sales of nearly $20 billion more than Pfizer, the second place Its competitive strength is obvious Johnson & Johnson's explosion stems from the dramatic growth of its prescription drug business In 2016, Johnson & Johnson's prescription drug business realized sales of US $33.46 billion, an increase of 6.5% year on year, accounting for nearly half of the total operating revenue But this growth is also mainly reflected in the local market In 2016, Johnson & Johnson's sales growth in the local market was 9.8%, while that in the international market was only 1.8%, which was slightly smaller Pfizer, No 2, generated $52.8 billion in revenue last year, up 11% year on year In 2016, Pfizer showed strong growth potential despite adverse factors such as expiration of product patents, decline of 13 price Peier adult vaccine business revenue in the United States Roche and Novartis, two Swiss giants in the third and fourth place, focus on R & D and have been in the first tier for a long time In 2016, Roche's sales volume was CHF 50.576 billion, up 4% year on year The sales revenue of pharmaceutical business was CHF 39.103 billion, the sales revenue of diagnostic business was CHF 11.473 billion, and the R & D investment was CHF 9.9 billion From the data level of several large companies, China's market has become a profit cow to drive corporate performance For example, AstraZeneca's performance in mature markets such as the United States, Europe, Japan and Canada has declined across the board, while emerging markets (including China, Brazil, India, Mexico, Russia and Turkey) have achieved outstanding performance In particular, China has contributed US $2.636 billion in sales revenue, accounting for 45% of the whole emerging market, becoming the strongest support for AstraZeneca's global performance The Chinese market also contributed to Roche's revenue growth In the pharmaceutical sector, the approval of Herceptin to be included in the coverage of medical insurance reimbursement by some provinces in China is one of the main driving forces for its sales volume to achieve 4% growth; while Roche Diagnostics accounts for 50% of the 16% growth in sales volume in the Asia Pacific region, which is the main force for Roche's development in the Asia Pacific market IMS has published industry forecasts that the growth gap between the mature market and the emerging drug market will continue to increase in the next few years According to the report, by 2018, emerging pharmaceutical markets are expected to account for 1 / 3 of the global market value (in line with the U.S market) and contribute nearly 60% to the growth of market value (excluding rebate and discount) By contrast, markets in all developed countries, including the United States, then contribute only 25% to market value growth The focus of global market growth potential has been significantly biased towards emerging pharmaceutical markets At present, China's new drug approval speed has shown new business opportunities According to the priority review policy of new drugs issued by the State Food and drug administration, the application for clinical trials of new drugs that the applicant applies for and is approved to carry out clinical trials of drugs in the European Union and the United States at the same time, or the application for drug registration that uses the same production line in China and applies for listing in the European Union and the United States at the same time and has passed the on-site inspection of its drug approval authority can be reviewed preferentially Some executives of foreign pharmaceutical companies who do not want to be named said that it usually takes 5-8 years for foreign new drugs to enter China, resulting in a large number of new drug approvals lagging behind After the acceleration, "the new drugs that were accumulated but did not enter the Chinese market can enter quickly and become our new market growth point, which is our most promising field now." The competition of innovative drugs is fierce Throughout the R & D layout of major pharmaceutical companies, they have different emphasis on anti-tumor drugs and immune drugs, and the competition is fierce The drugs with high market attention include: opdivo of BMS for melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and other indications, keytruda, a product of MSD, imbruvica irutini, tecentriq of Roche, the first immunodrug approved by FDA for the treatment of bladder cancer, etc At the same time, the rise of generic drugs has also brought huge pressure to foreign pharmaceutical companies Severin Schwan, head of Roche Group, said Roche was "going through a transformation" and its revenue may decline for the first time due to the emergence of bio generic drugs in the European market, but the launch of four new drugs within the past year is still an "unprecedented" feat in the company's history "The growth in sales is driven by new drugs, and we hope that momentum will continue," said Schwan, after all, Roche's best-selling drugs in cancer treatment, Herceptin and Avastin, are facing more and more generic challenges In recent years, the discourse power of domestic innovative drugs in the global market is also increasing In April last year, imp321, an innovative tumor immune candidate drug developed and produced by Wuxi apptec, was officially used in phase IIB clinical trials in Belgium and became the first innovative drug approved for clinical trials in the European Union In October 2015, risperidone microsphere injection developed by LVYE pharmaceutical was also approved by FDA to submit a new drug application "In recent years, pharmaceutical companies have paid more and more attention to R & D investment The R & D investment ratio of Hengrui Pharmaceutical (600276) and Haizheng pharmaceutical is close to 10% We believe that the discourse power of domestic innovative drugs will improve in the future." Mr Shi lichen, founder of the third-party medical service platform, said For foreign pharmaceutical companies, continuous investment in new drug research and development and large-scale business sector M & A will still be the main strategy to strengthen their own strength in 2017.