On August 13th, the State Council issued the "Opinions on Further Optimizing the Foreign Investment Environment and Increasing the Attractiveness of Foreign Investment" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"). It mentioned the need to better coordinate the domestic and international situations, create a market-oriented, rule-of-law, and international first-class business environment, fully leverage the advantages of China's large-scale market, and attract and utilize foreign investment with greater efforts and effectiveness.
Many provisions in the "Opinions" have positive implications for the development of the biopharmaceutical industry. Specific provisions include: accelerating the landing and production of foreign-invested projects in the biopharmaceutical field, encouraging foreign-invested enterprises to conduct clinical trials of cell and gene therapy drugs that have been marketed overseas in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, and optimizing the application procedures for the registration of pharmaceutical products produced overseas and transferred to the domestic market.
The "Opinions" repeatedly mention the biopharmaceutical field and continuously strengthen the patent protection for drugs and medical consumables, aiming to provide a better environment for the development of foreign companies in China. In fact, the participation of foreign investors provides essential capital flow for the development of China's pharmaceutical industry and has a catalytic effect, improving the quality of domestic innovative drugs. In the first half of this year, several multinational corporations have increased their investment in China, promoting the development of the domestic biopharmaceutical industry.
AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca has been developing in China for 30 years, constantly increasing investment and building an efficient supply network. Last year, AstraZeneca added a new production line in Taizhou, with an expected annual output value of over 10 billion RMB. In March 2023, AstraZeneca established a new production and supply base for Bevespi Aerosphere (pMDI) in Qingdao, with a total investment of approximately 450 million USD.
After the release of the "Opinions," AstraZeneca further increased its investment in production and supply bases within a week. On August 14th, AstraZeneca signed a memorandum of cooperation and investment for the expansion of Phase II of the new production base with the High-tech Industrial Development Zone in Qingdao. According to the agreement, AstraZeneca will invest an additional 250 million USD in the pMDI production and supply base, further expanding its capacity for canning production and adding new inhalation aerosol packaging production lines to further increase production capacity.
On August 18th, the two parties officially signed a strategic development agreement for the production and supply base in Wuxi. AstraZeneca will accelerate the introduction of a new production line for Zirabev (zirconium sodium silicate granules), a drug for hyperkalemia, and complete the global production integration of the small molecule injection digestive drug Nexium (esomeprazole) by 2024. The estimated annual output value of these two products after reaching full production is expected to be 3.5 billion RMB.
On August 16th, AstraZeneca signed an investment cooperation memorandum with the Taizhou Pharmaceutical Industry Park, planning to increase capital to expand the production and supply base in Taizhou. This includes the construction of a new production line for Andajian (dapagliflozin sustained-release tablets) for diabetes, aiming to further expand production capacity and make Taizhou a global production base for AstraZeneca's diabetes products.
The Chinese market has always been AstraZeneca's second-largest market globally and an important engine for its development. In the first half of 2023, AstraZeneca's revenue in China reached 3.043 billion USD, a year-on-year increase of 9%.
Sanofi
For Sanofi, China is the world's second-largest market after the United States. I...
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