China seen as fertile land for pharma firms

China's massive consumer base, strengthened intellectual property protection, and enhanced innovation climate are converging to foster a fertile landscape for pharmaceutical companies to bring their cutting-edge drugs to the market, said a senior executive of a multinational pharmaceutical company.

What sets China apart from many other markets, to begin with, is the sheer scale of its consumer base. With the world's second-largest population, China represents a super-sized opportunity for the pharma sector, said Claus Zieler, chief commercial officer of Tokyo-headquartered Astellas.

This massive demand pool is further enhanced by the shifting dynamic in the country's demographic, Zieler said, adding that an aging population comes with rising needs for innovative medicine.

Data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs showed that China's elderly population, aged 60 and above, accounted for more than one-fifth of the nation's total population last year, and the aging trend may intensify in the future.

The strengthening of China's IP regime has also been of vital importance for the pharma sector, according to Zieler.

Developing new drugs requires massive upfront investments in research and clinical trials. Strong IP rights provide pharmaceutical companies with the ability to recoup these substantial costs through exclusive market access for a period of time, Zieler said.

The promise of patent protections and the potential for high returns incentivize pharmaceutical companies to continually invest in developing new drugs. This will fuel a cycle of ongoing innovation, he added.

China has treated domestic and foreign companies with an equal footing in terms of protecting patents and intellectual properties, Zieler said, stressing that China should continue on that path because it gives certainty of planning and expectation for companies investing in China.

In addition to the market size and IP framework, China has a culture that is "very ready to accept innovation", Zieler said.

In the last decade, China has been intensifying its health reform and ramping up efforts to refine its regulatory landscape. This includes streamlining the review and approval of new drugs and scaling up support for clinical trials, creating a favorable policy environment for both global innovators like Astellas, as well as local innovators, Zieler said.

The company is introducing two innovative cancer treatments to China, focusing on bladder and gastric oncology. These novel products, which are designed to improve patient outcomes and offer new hope, will soon enter the Chinese market, according to Zieler.

For example, noting that there are tremendous patient needs related to gastric cancer in China, Zieler said that Astellas engaged China in the global multicenter clinical trial for gastric cancer, and achieved global simultaneous development and biologics license application submission.

China is expected to become one of the first wave of markets to adopt this therapy, and this is expected to benefit Chinese gastric cancer patients who account for nearly 40 percent of global cases, Zieler said.

Meanwhile, a novel treatment from Astellas for menopausal hot flashes has been available on a trial basis in Boao, Hainan province. It has also been filed with Hong Kong authorities and is waiting for approval, said Shirley Zhao, president of Astellas China.

"China is the world's second-largest pharmaceutical market with a large population. It presents us with great development potential in tremendous unmet medical needs. Astellas has been rooted in China for 30 years, and we appreciate China's unwavering efforts in deepening its reform and opening-up over the past decades," Zieler said.

"As a global pharmaceutical company which is committed to long-term investment in China, we are expecting more policies to accelerate the innovation and keep improving patient access that will not only benefit patients but also bolster high-quality development of the innovation ecosystem in China," Zhao said.

Astellas will do everything in its power to ensure these cutting-edge treatments can reach Chinese patients as quickly as possible, Zhao added.