Roche Pharmaceuticals: Significant progress in the development of new hepatitis B drugs in China

Roche Pharmaceuticals: Significant progress in the development of new hepatitis B drugs in China

May 09, 2016 Source: Xinhua News Agency

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Chairman of the Roche Group Board of Christopher Franz

"We don't know if this batch of candidate new drugs is effective for humans, but the animal test is very successful and looks promising." Dr. Christopher Franz, Chairman of the Roche Group Board of Directors recently revealed in an interview with Xinhua News Agency, "Scientists We will soon conduct clinical trials on new drugs."

Franz believes that the Shanghai R&D Center's drug development for hepatitis B virus is not inferior to Roche's laboratories in Europe and the United States, and it is at the forefront of the world. More than 80% of the center is a Chinese native scientist.

According to reports, the new drug will combine two mechanisms to jointly fight against hepatitis B virus, both targeted therapy for the virus and activation therapy for the immune system.

“If early clinical trials are successful, it will take at least three to four years for new drugs to enter the market,” Franz said. “However, there are also very high risks in the development of new drugs, and nine out of ten will face failures in the clinical phase. fate."

According to the World Health Organization, there are approximately 240 million people chronically infected with hepatitis B worldwide, and an estimated 780,000 people die each year from hepatitis B complications such as cirrhosis and liver cancer. There are about 90 million people with chronic hepatitis B virus infection in China. In addition to long-term medical expenses, they may also be discriminated against in terms of enrollment and employment.

"Our ambition is to be here, in Shanghai, to develop and produce new drugs that can cure diseases of a global scale," Franz said.

In 1994, Roche established a pharmaceutical company in Shanghai; in 2004, it set up a research and development center in Shanghai. At present, Roche has established a complete pharmaceutical value industry chain including research, development, production and marketing in China.

At the end of 2015, Roche announced that it will invest 863 million yuan to build a new experimental facility for Shanghai's R&D center. China has become Roche's fourth global innovation center after the United States, Switzerland and Germany.

The new center is located in the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park in Pudong. It is about ten minutes drive from the existing R&D center. It will start in November this year and is expected to be completed in 2018. The new center will have an area of ​​14,000 square meters and 220 modular work areas.

“China has a huge talent pool and a good academic education atmosphere. Therefore, we also pay more attention to China.” Franz said that the new innovation center will effectively promote Roche cooperation with local research institutions and domestic innovation companies, attracting the world's top The scientific research talents are rooted in China.

As a company focused on R&D and innovation, Roche does not operate generic drugs and biological analogues. Roche invests more than 15% of its sales revenue each year in the development of new products. In 2015, its R&D investment was 9.3 billion Swiss francs, accounting for 19.3% of the current year's revenue.

However, for Roche, China is not only a base for innovation, but its growing wealth and aging population also bring huge market potential to the pharmaceutical industry. "What we are most concerned about is that Roche's newest and most innovative drugs can be listed in China. We are very happy to see that the Chinese government has made great progress in accelerating drug approval," Franz said.

“I hope that in the future, our new drug will be approved on the same day in Europe, America and China.” He explained that before the Chinese government reform approval process, it is usually five nights for new drugs to be listed in China because new drugs require separate clinical trials. The process of applying for a clinical trial license is sometimes lengthy.

Roche, which has both diagnostic and pharmaceutical businesses, is committed to promoting “individualized medicine”. "About 60% of the molecular drugs we develop have a combined diagnostic strategy," Franz explained, which helps find patients who are new to the drug and discover new biomarkers.

He used the Herceptin, a targeted drug for the treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer. In the concept of “individualized medicine”, patients will first detect whether HER2 is over-expressed, and then determine the treatment plan, which will effectively improve the treatment effect.

However, in many countries, including China, the affordability of patients remains a problem, and Roche is looking for solutions.

"We have reached an agreement with some provincial governments to include Roche's drugs in the provincial health insurance catalog," Franz said. Currently, Herceptin is reimbursed in 11 provinces, covering 350 million people.

However, even in a province, the reimbursement rate is not the same. “In different cities in Zhejiang Province, Herceptin’s medical insurance reimbursement rates range from 50% to 80%, depending on the budget of each city,” Franz explained.

In addition, Roche also works with insurance companies and offers free drugs in some patient-funded projects. "We are optimistic that with the joint efforts of the government, insurance companies and Roche themselves, more and more Chinese patients will receive quality treatment," Franz said.

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