In any field, once the development process changes rapidly, it is inevitable that there will be large generational differences.
The most typical thing is that in just a few decades, China has undergone a compressed modernization development, making great strides from "rural China" to "urban and rural China".
The drastic changes have made the life processes, behavioral habits, and values of different generations very different. To some extent, the same is true of the development of the pharmaceutical industry.
In the past ten years, the rapid transformation of the entire pharmaceutical industry once made Hengrui Pharmaceutical and other "old guns" a little overwhelmed. And the performance of these pharmaceutical companies in the capital market also shows their poor situation.
No one wants to be abandoned by the times. In the process of being pushed forward by the times, some medical "veterans" are also doing their best to keep up with the pace of the times.
For example, we will continue to improve our R&D and commercialization concepts, and go global from R&D introduction to BD... While this does not mean that they have succeeded, it does at least show that the generational differences brought about by the drastic changes in the environment are disappearing from these old medical "guns".
/ 01 / Changing R&D concepts
This generation of pharmaceutical companies, born around 1970, has grown up in the transformation from planning to market, from state-owned enterprises to collectives, opening a new chapter in the development of generic drugs in China.
Especially after the 90s, a large number of pharmaceutical companies gradually began to accumulate original profits through market-oriented sales channels, and became a leading giant in the pharmaceutical industry.
The heritage makes these companies believe in one more thing: their fate is in their own hands. Hengrui Pharmaceutical is undoubtedly a typical example of this type of enterprise.
For example, although Hengrui Pharmaceutical established a BD department as early as 2011, before 2021, the company was not very interested in licensing in.
According to Chairman Sun Piaoyang's previous thoughts, good products are too expensive, and ordinary products are better to make them yourself. Therefore, we rarely hear the news of Hengrui Pharmaceutical's license in, and the company's BD department does not seem to have any sense of existence.
However, the reality is that most of the pharmaceutical "veterans" only occupy the market by expanding the scale of production and marketing, and do not have much concept of developing innovative drugs. This also makes them a little overwhelmed in the process of "compressed modernization" of China's innovative drug industry.
However, in the past two years, with the transformation into the deep water area, the "old guns" have fully realized that the efficiency of introduction will inevitably be higher than relying on self-development, and their attitude towards BD has begun to become more positive.
On August 26, 2021, in the context of the challenges encountered by the follow strategy, Hengrui Pharmaceutical announced the introduction of Dalian Wanchun's innovative drug punabulin. Although it turned out to be a failed introduction, it showed Hengrui Pharmaceutical's determination to embrace the new era.
After Wanchun Pharmaceutical, Hengrui Pharmaceutical continued to make moves, and successively introduced pipelines such as PI3Kδ inhibitors. In this regard, Dr. Zhang Lianshan, deputy general manager of Hengrui Pharmaceutical, said that Hengrui Pharmaceutical adheres to the independent center for R&D and innovation, and also actively carries out cooperation with outstanding peers at home and abroad to promote the diversification of innovation sources in complementing each other's advantages.
Not only Hengrui Pharmaceutical, but also China Biopharmaceutical, Huadong Medicine and Qilu Pharmaceutical, etc., are also actively introducing pipelines and embracing a new era through a more inclusive attitude.
/ 02 / The way of going to sea is a change
While the pipeline strategy is changing, in the era of pharmaceutical globalization, these pharmaceutical "veterans" are also exploring more diverse ways.
Take Hengrui Pharmaceutical as an example. In the past, Hengrui Pharmaceutical's overseas strategy was mainly "self-oriented", through its own overseas clinical trials, building a sales team, etc. Before 2022, the company prides itself on its independent overseas model.
However, going to sea is never easy. In terms of clinical and registration links, there are many international multi-center clinical enrollment locations, which have extremely high requirements for the R&D team and operation team of pharmaceutical companies, not only to strictly grasp the international standards, admission and exclusion standards for enrolled patients, and trial quality control, but also to be very familiar with the requirements of overseas clinical registration regulations.
Even Hengrui Pharmaceutical has not yet made actual achievements in the export of innovative drugs. As a last resort, Big Brother also began to change its strategy of going to sea.
Since the beginning of this year, Hengrui Pharmaceutical has completed 4 overseas transactions. Through these transactions, Hengrui Pharmaceutical hopes to release a signal that it is actively embracing the global market on the one hand, and on the other hand, it also hopes that the market can continue to believe in its own strength.
The most typical is undoubtedly the latest BD of Hengrui Pharmaceutical on October 30.
Previously, most of Hengrui Pharmaceutical's external BD cooperation partners were little-known small pharmaceutical companies, which also made the market criticized. However, the target of this cooperation is Merck KGaA.
Obviously, Hengrui Pharmaceutical hopes to release to the outside world that it has the ability to cooperate with big pharma companies to prove that it does not lack R&D capabilities.
At the same time, the main role of the cooperation with Merck KGaA, Germany, is the PARP inhibitor HRS-1167, which comes with the new Claudin18.2 ADC drug SHR-A1904. The reason why it is said to be incidental is that Merck KGaa will choose whether to exercise its rights in the future.
The purpose of Hengrui Pharmaceutical's move is also very clear, hoping to change the market's perception of its lack of innovation ability. After all, in the field of ADC, Hengrui Pharmaceutical's layout can be described as very comprehensive, but in the context of BD's big going overseas, its drugs have no experience of going overseas, which will more or less lose face.
But right now, Hengrui Pharmaceutical is trying to tell the market that things are changing.
/ 03 / After catering to the development of the times
To a certain extent, the transformation of Hengrui Medicine is also a microcosm of the domestic pharmaceutical "old guns" to adapt to the development of the times. After a brief onslaught, they quickly redirection and went all out.
Transformation does not mean that you can really go ashore. Overseas, whether it is the experience of global big pharma companies such as Merck or Sanofi, continuous challenges will accompany the growth of these big pharma companies: no time is the time for complete success.
What's more, these medical "old guns" have only temporarily eliminated the difference between the times, and have not made absolute achievements.
But in any case, pharmaceutical companies that are actively seeking change, including China Biopharmaceutical and Hengrui Pharmaceutical, at least prove that they will no longer be completely left behind by the times as the market feared in the past few years.
On the contrary, they can actively seek change and participate in the competition of the innovative drug market with a more competitive attitude.
Traditional pharmaceutical companies have certain advantages in talent, policy, and market development, and they are bound to change in a clearer direction when R&D and technology levels and business philosophy levels catch up one after another.
Between the tension between tradition and modernity, there is not only the possibility of elimination, but also the effect of promoting change. The development of the modern market economy and the influx of ideas of the new era have provided a channel for the liberation of the traditional generation. At present, these medical "veterans" have also reached the point of liberation.
