Xinda CCO Liu Min left! PD-1 "Three Little Dragons" commercial leader full shuffle! Commercialization 2.0

The transformation of commercial products from single to diversified is the only way for Biotech to become Biopharma and then upgrade to Bigpharma. The iteration of the construction of Cinda's commercialization team may mean that the owners of innovative pharmaceutical companies have gradually deepened their understanding of products, markets and sales, and opened a new stage of business model evolution.

On August 4, E-drug managers exclusively learned that Liu Min, chief commercial officer (CCO) of Cinda Biologics, had resigned. Subsequently, the manager of E-Drug verified the personnel change information with Cinda.

Min Liu was one of the first employees of Cinda's commercialization team. The end of 2017 is the starting point for Cinda's commercialization. At the beginning of 2018, Cinda selected Liu Min from more than 30 candidates, opening the first step in commercialization.

After joining Cinda, Liu Min was responsible for the company's business operations, including market sales and market access. Prior to that, Min Liu served as Vice President of Roche China Oncology Division and General Pharmaceutical Division, General Manager of Alcon North China, Sales Director of Unisby and Marketing Director of AstraZeneca. He has more than 20 years of experience in business management, strategic decision-making, and team development in multinational pharmaceutical companies.

It is understood that Liu Min did not disclose the next move after leaving office.

01, PD-1 Three Dragons CCO left one after another

By the time Liu Min left, the chief commercial officers of PD-1 "Three Little Dragons" Xinda, Baekje, and Junshi had all been replaced.

According to the statistics of E drug managers, Qian Wei, chief commercial officer of Junshi Biology, left office 9 months ago, and in the three years of commercialization of Junshi, three commercial leaders have been replaced continuously, namely Han Jing, Duan Xin and Qian Wei, of which Qian Wei only stayed for 5 months. So far, Junshi has not publicly disclosed the appointment of the new CCO.

Interestingly, junshi's three COOs have all held important positions in Roche Oncology Division. Including Liu Min, who was once a key executive of Roche's oncology division.

The same is true of Baekje of the "Three Little Dragons". In the past four years, four commercial leaders have been replaced consecutively, namely Bian Xin, Zhu Yifei, Wu Qingyi, and Yin Min. In December last year, Baekje announced that Yin Min, former General Manager of AstraZeneca's Oncology Division, had joined BeiGene as Chief Commercial Officer for Greater China.

However, the difference between Cinda and Cinda is that this is the first chief commercial officer change since the beginning of its commercialization. Liu Min experienced the first stage of The Cinda's critical transition from Biotech to Bioshama and was "indispensable" to Cinda. He has promoted sindilizumab to become the first PD-1 reimbursed by Medicare, and sales exceeded 1 billion yuan in the first year of listing (2019), and in the first year after entering the medical insurance catalog, sales doubled to 2.2 billion yuan. At present, Cinda has established a sales and marketing team of more than 3,000 people.

Now the most stable Xinda creature, Liu Min has also left. What needs to be considered is, why can't commercial talents stay in Biopharma?

What is clear is that the commonality of these three companies is the first Biotech to enter commercialization, and the common product is PD-1. As we all know, PD-1 is the "king of rolls" in domestic biological drugs. In the first year of commercialization (2019), the industry was peaceful, with Junshi's sales of 770 million yuan and Cinda's sales of 1 billion yuan, which was comparable.

The next year, Junshi's sales of 1 billion yuan, Cinda's doubled to 2.29 billion yuan, and the gap further widened the pressure. At the same time, the PD-1 of baekje, a newcomer, had sales of more than 1 billion yuan in the first year.

In the third year (2021), the hidden pressure began to erupt. PD-1 revenue fell by 410 million yuan due to the turmoil in the Junshi team; PD-1 revenue increased to 3.1 billion yuan due to the steady expansion of the Cinda team; and Baekje maintained sales growth to 1.65 billion yuan despite executive changes.

By the first quarter of this year, Junshi had not yet announced the CCO candidate, and the PD-1 sales were only 110 million yuan; Cinda organization adjusted, did not disclose specific sales, only mentioned "usage rate and sales growth", and the industry had a hidden worry of "incremental non-increase in profits"; Baekje's new CCO, Yin Min, arrived, with PD-1 sales reaching CNY 560 million, up 76% year-on-year.

Putting aside the three small dragons, even Hengrui stressed in the semi-annual report of 2021 that PD-1 was affected by the price reduction of medical insurance negotiations, and the product revenue fell month-on-month. And according to the previous report of the manager of E drug, Hengrui also adjusted the carrelizumab in some areas to the image line. This year, there are several new PD-1s that will compete, and the pressure can be imagined.

02. The commercialization of innovative drugs has entered the 2.0 stage

Difficult is to think. Biotech and Biopharma, which are at the forefront of commercialization, are changing and procuring the industry.

Most of the first commercialized Biotech started from a single core product, started from scratch, recruited professional managers with rich experience from multinational pharmaceutical companies or local pharmaceutical companies to join, quickly formed a team, and raced to seize the land. However, with the gradual increase in the number of products and the deepening of market understanding, the evolution of commercialization models is an inevitable path.

Industry insiders familiar with the operation of the organization said, "When the company's product pipeline is more and more abundant, and there are more and more commercial products, it is impossible to develop roughly like the start-up period, and it is inevitable to adjust the organizational structure to adapt to the development of the company." ”

It is reported that at the beginning of 2022, in order to match the changes in the external environment and the diversified needs of products, Cinda optimized the commercialization team and set up 6 business units for 7 products that have been listed. The purpose of optimization is to start from resource management and expense management, return to the essence of business, and control profits from the expense side to achieve refined management. The heads of the 6 business units will report directly to Yu Dechao, the founder of Innovent Biologics.

Cinda was one of the first companies to be commercialized, and it is also an innovative pharmaceutical company recognized in the industry as having done a relatively successful commercialization. The iteration of the Cinda commercialization team means that the owners of innovative pharmaceutical companies have gradually deepened their understanding of products, markets and sales, and opened a new stage of business model evolution.

It is understood that Cinda has 7 commercial products, sindilimab, pemetinib, orebatinib, remosciliumab, and three biosimilars.

03. The commercialization of innovative pharmaceutical companies is a protracted battle

As more and more innovative drugs are approved, competition will become more and more difficult. Because the pressure of medical insurance fund payment will exist for a long time, innovative pharmaceutical companies can only "think about change".

In the Chinese market, Biotech, which has just entered the commercial market, has no brand and no scale, both of which are the products of time. What exactly should we do? "First, we should do it with an attitude of fighting a protracted war, and insist on doing what you think is right, even if we don't get results today. Second, to improve everyone's combat efficiency, like Biotech, which has just entered the commercialization, is the first team to be formed, each member needs to precipitate, need to deeply understand the product, and it is especially important to find a differentiated market strategy for the product. Liu Wei (pseudonym), who is the head of commercialization in the innovative pharmaceutical company, told the manager of E-drug.

Liu Wei also said that innovative pharmaceutical companies must improve their competitiveness, in many therapeutic areas, in fact, the increase in competitors will make the whole cake bigger, so if you can enter the top three and the front position, the benefits are more; But if it is not the first three to come in, it is not easy to succeed.

The same is true of the policy environment. "In fact, if you have a good grasp of policy, commercialization will become easier; But if you don't grasp it well, it will be very difficult. Because the current policy is to improve the efficiency of the approval of innovative drugs, but other standards will certainly become more stringent. Therefore, the pipeline strategy after that must be pushed backwards from commercialization, and it must be able to truly understand China's rules. Liu Wei said.

(At the request of the interviewee, Liu Wei is a pseudonym in the text)