Zhou Hong, President of Roche Pharmaceuticals China. Xinhua News
Xinhua Online, November 11 (Shi Yiling) During the third China International Import Expo (referred to as the "Expo"), Zhou Hong, president of Roche Pharmaceutical China, said in a series of interviews with Xinhuanet "Foreign Enterprises Talk about the New Pattern" that Roche's global management team has launched the "China 2030 Strategy" and will continue to increase the layout of the Chinese market in the next decade, and work together with all sectors of society to create an industry-leading innovative medical and health ecosystem.
In the context of the global epidemic of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the innovative development of the biomedical industry has attracted much attention, and the third CIIE has also set up a "public health epidemic prevention zone" for the first time in the medical device and medical care exhibition area.
As one of the largest brands in the medical equipment and medical care exhibition area of the Expo, Roche Group, a top 500 foreign-funded enterprise, is the "old friend" of the Expo, Roche Group not only participated in the Expo for 3 consecutive years, but also signed a strategic framework agreement with the China International Import Expo Bureau in July this year, and in the next 3 years, Roche will participate in the Expo. At this year's Expo, Roche showcased a variety of innovative products and diagnosis and treatment solutions, covering major disease areas such as tumor immunotherapy, influenza, hematological tumors and rare diseases.
"Roche brings new products at each CIIE, and these new products are called 'CIIE Babies' internally." Zhou Hong introduced that among the 6 "Expo Babies" this year, including the "t + a" combination therapy that was just approved in China at the end of October this year - the innovative tumor immune drug atenizumab (trade name: Tai Shengqi) and bevacizumab (trade name: Anvetin). In the past two years, benefiting from the excellent open platform of the Expo, Roche has brought the cutting-edge technology developed and global innovative products covering multiple disease fields to China for the first time, pressing the "acceleration button" to improve the accessibility of innovative drugs for Chinese patients.
"What I feel most deeply in recent years is that the review and approval of new drugs brought about by the deepening reform of China's pharmaceutical industry has accelerated. In the past, imported innovative drugs were approved for listing in China at least 4 years later than in Europe and the United States, and now they can basically achieve synchronous listing. "In Zhou Hong's view, Roche, which has been rooted in China for 26 years, is a beneficiary of continuously optimizing the business environment." In the current complex international economic situation, China has not pressed the 'pause button' for opening up to the outside world, but has increased its opening up. Roche deeply feels the continuous improvement of this business environment and is full of confidence in the Chinese market. Zhou Hong said.
She said that as a window to show the world China's deepening reform and expansion of opening up, the Expo provides an excellent display platform and opportunity for multinational enterprises, and builds a communication bridge between enterprises and governments, enterprises and enterprises. "Through the Expo, ordinary people can also have a more intuitive understanding of various diseases and diseases." At a time when the medical industry is gradually moving towards scientific, professional and subdivided, if there is no platform such as the Expo, it may be difficult for the people to understand the knowledge of various fields in an exhibition. Zhou Hong said: "In the past 2 years, Roche has witnessed a strong spillover effect of the Expo. It is not only the exchanges and transactions achieved on the booth during the Expo, but also the platform built by the Expo, so that more cooperation opportunities will continue to be obtained after the Expo. Roche will continue to strengthen its long-term cooperation with CIIE, bringing more innovative products and solutions through this platform to benefit more Chinese patients. ”
Zhou Hong revealed that Roche's global management team has launched the "China 2030 Strategy", and will increase the layout of the Chinese market in the next 10 years, especially in the field of research and development, and will build a completely independent research and development center in China within 3 years.
As early as 2004, Roche took the lead in establishing an R&D center in Shanghai, which was the first R&D center established by a multinational pharmaceutical company in Shanghai. In October 2019, Roche invested RMB 863 million to upgrade the roche Shanghai innovation center on the basis of the Roche R&D center. Zhou Hong said: "The upgraded Roche Shanghai Innovation Center will continue to expand its coverage areas, where there is a need for patients, our medical scientists will go to this direction to develop." At the same time, it will also expand the team of medical scientists in the innovation center and find more local enterprises, foreign-funded enterprises, and scientific research institutions at home and abroad to cooperate together. Zhou Hong said that roche Shanghai Innovation Center is also the world's third largest R&D strategy center after Roche's headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, and San Francisco, USA. At present, more than 90% of the researchers engaged in drug discovery and early clinical development at the Roche Shanghai Innovation Center are Chinese local medical scientists.
"Disease has no state, and innovation knows no borders." Zhou Hong believes that pharmaceutical innovation and research and development require transnational cooperation and independent innovation. "Roche looks forward to working with Local Chinese companies to solve unsolved problems and truly create a patient-centered 'ecosystem'; at the same time, it also looks forward to more innovative drugs developed in China in the future." Zhou Hong said.