AstraZeneca wants to take local innovation to the international market

Leading multinational pharmaceutical companies have expressed confidence in China's market potential and business environment.

With growing awareness of intellectual property rights protection at various levels of local government, top executives believe industry operators of all sizes will benefit from the positive landscape and the overall encouraging attitude toward innovation.

Xu Feng, associate vice president of AstraZeneca China and chief IP counsel of China and Asia, believes that increased efforts in IPR protection have encouraged the company to invest more in China.

He noted that the overall favorable climate for improving IPR protection contributes to long-term innovation.

"It also allows multinationals like AstraZeneca to seek collaboration with local companies and bring local innovations to the international market, which eventually leads to a healthy industry development ecosystem," he said.

"The pace of improvement for China's IPR protection measures has been very fast and local innovation capabilities and potential would be further unleashed thanks to this kind of systematic approach to protect research outcomes."

AstraZeneca's continued investment in the country in recent years has underlined its confidence as well as a strengthening business environment on a variety of fronts.

Ti Gong

AstraZeneca hopes that roughly 100 types of innovative medicines and new indications will be approved for the Chinese market within the next five years.

Earlier this year, AstraZeneca announced a US$475 million investment to develop a small-molecule medicine facility in neighboring Wuxi, Jiangsu Province.

It has also finalized the acquisition of Gracell Biotechnologies Inc, a global clinical-stage biopharmaceutical firm that develops novel cell treatments for cancer and autoimmune illnesses.

In Shanghai, it established the China Commercial Innovation Center, with a focus on the smart healthcare industry, to fully exploit local expertise and resources in artificial intelligence.