Novartis expects Chinese drug market will accelerate soon

Novartis expects growth in China’s pharmaceuticals market to accelerate as the nation’s health authorities expedite approvals for new medicines and increase reimbursement. The Chinese pharmaceutical market may exceed $300 billion in sales by 2020, Chief Executive Officer Joe Jimenez said in an interview in Geneva on Tuesday. That will happen as regulators in the country push to offer new drugs to sick patients who’ve traditionally not had access to the world’s groundbreaking meds. The country is now the world’s second-biggest pharmaceutical market, behind the U.S.

Last month, officials in China proposed a slate of changes to the country’s drug approval process to speed foreign drug approvals by loosening testing rules. Traditionally, drugmakers have faced high barriers to entry in China centered around local drug testing.
“They recognize they have a population that really wants to be part of getting access to health care and new medicines,” he said. “They’re starting to bring down those barriers.”

An “innovative” pharmaceutical industry also is starting to emerge in China with scientists returning to the country from the U.S. and new biotech companies sprouting, though it will take time to develop, Jimenez said. Novartis has more than 300 scientists in China working on illnesses that are prevalent in the country such as liver disease and stomach cancer, and “there are many new molecules we’re working on,” he said, declining to elaborate.

Novartis recently won Chinese approvals for kidney cancer med Votrient and myelofibrosis med Jakavi, according to Bloomberg, while Roche secured an approval for melanoma drug Zelboraf and AstraZeneca gained a nod for lung cancer therapy Tagrisso.
According to the International Trade Association, the Chinese pharma market was worth $108 billion in 2015. The group says the country is “one of the most promising for U.S. exports in the long-term given its size and growth potential.”
Of course, cost remains an issue in China, with more than 1.3 billion people living in the country and many of them with very low incomes. Government officials are continuously looking for ways to limit spending and drive costs down.