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Chinese Biopharmas Eager to Partner, Differentiation Wanted

publication date: Jun 5, 2014
 | 
author/source: Marie Powers, Staff Writer, BioWorld™ (www.bioworld.com)

Editor's note -- BioWorld™, the daily biopharma newsletter from ThomsonReuters, attended the ChinaBio® Partnering Forum, held in Suzhou during May, and produced a series of articles based on panel discussions and interviews with participants. The articles detail the insider’s sense of rapid development in China’s biopharma sector – every year seems different from the one before. The articles will be reprinted in ChinaBio® Today over the next few weeks with the gracious consent of BioWorld (www.bioworld.com).

The current article discusses partnering from the perspective of a western multinational pharma – Novo Nordisk – the company's partnering goals and some basic research tips for potential partners (see original BioWorld article). 

Previous articles focused on:

  • China’s venture capital firms help drive the growth of the country's innovative drug sector (see article);
  • Best strategies for dealing with China’s Center for Drug Evaluation (see article); and,
  • Innovation in China life sciences, using as examples Ruiyi, Shenogen Pharma, Suzhou Alphamab Co. and Mabspace Biosciences (see article).



 Chinese Biopharmas Eager to Partner, Differentiation Wanted


"We're looking for differentiation," said Anand Gautam, Innovation Sourcing Director for Novo Nordisk A/S. "This is very important, because not every product out there is going to cut it." Gautam was speaking to an audience – mostly Chinese – comprised mainly of biopharma execs who are interested in partnering with multinational pharmas. They were the attendees at a partnering boot camp that took place in conjunction with the recent 2014 ChinaBio® Partnering Forum in Suzhou. The audience received some very practical information.

In China, as in other countries, pharma considers the quality of the science in relation to its targets – which for Novo Nordisk are diabetes, hemophilia and inflammation – before considering whether to execute a deal, said Gautam. So far, much of the technology emerging from China has represented "follow-ons and me-toos," which don't move the needle on innovation, he asserted.

Licensing and partnering are essential components of the pharma's strategy, Gautam continued, and the company is "keen to partner" in China. The company has an "innovation sourcing team" at its Beijing R&D facility that, along with its Seattle lab, feeds into its major R&D center in Bagsvaerd, Denmark.

"We are partnering for differentiation," Gautam emphasized, noting that 70 percent of patients in its target indications do not respond to existing drugs, including blockbusters such as Humira (adalimumab, Abbvie Inc.), Enbrel (etanercept, Amgen Inc.) and Remicade (infliximab, Johnson & Johnson). "In doing so, we have built up a reasonable pipeline, mostly with monoclonal antibodies. We're trying to differentiate ourselves in treating diseases with assets other than TNF products."

Other pharmas and big biotechs are seeking to do no less, Gautam declared.

"Technology is very important," he said, adding that pharmas are looking for "value-creating discoveries that can turn into medicines." Ultimately, the ability to transform a scientific discovery into a useful therapeutic is the most practical definition of innovation, according to Gautam, who said research for its own sake is not beneficial in drug discovery.

"Nonmarketable, unaffordable discoveries are essentially worthless to patients," he maintained, noting that Chinese researchers still have a tendency to get caught up in the science more than the application. "For patients, a Nature paper is useless unless you can transform it into medicine," Gautam said.

He acknowledged that China is coming on strong as a source of scientific discovery, citing statistics showing that China has leapfrogged Japan in just a decade as the top source of papers published in immunology and autoimmunity. Now, the challenge for Chinese researchers is to translate that science into clinical applications, which requires more mature partnering strategies.

Gautam acknowledged that no "hard and fast rules" exist for structuring agreements between biotechs and big pharmas in the important and fast-growing Chinese market. He cautioned, however, that many of the nation's young biotechs ignore even the most fundamental rules of engagement by failing to do basic homework.

"More often than not, when we're contacted by a potential partner, [the request] has nothing to do with our strategy," Gautam said, citing cancer as a frequent target indication of such requests. "We're not in cancer," he added, outlining the company's legacy in diabetes along with its development efforts in obesity, hemophilia, growth disorders and inflammation.

Although Gautam maintained that Novo eventually responds to every partnering inquiry, errant requests – which still must be vetted – slow the overall collaborative process and hurt a prospect's credibility. The meeting requests are staggering. The pharma expects to field 400 to 500 inquiries for the three-day BIO International Convention in San Diego in June but can accommodate only some 100 meetings.

And potential licensors should investigate a potential partner's scientific expertise fully, Gautam said, noting that Novo is focused solely on proteins. Small molecules, vaccines and other technologies don't fit its development profile.


Returnees are Driving Progress in China

Touching on a theme that is resonating throughout China's biotech community, Patrick Loofbourrow, partner in the emerging companies and public companies practice groups at Cooley LLP, said the nation's momentum in life sciences is being driven by returnees bringing their Western educations, experience and knowledge of industry best practices.

That phenomenon is occurring at the same time that China's homegrown research efforts are intensifying. For example, the ambitious ShanghaiTech University campus, with its iHuman Institute focused on human cell signaling, is scheduled to be fully operational this year.

U.S. and European companies want to tap into China's life sciences ecosystem and gain access to the country's enormous market, he said.

"It's an interesting time in terms of rapid change and rapid modernization," Loofbourrow continued. "More and more capital is available for investing in innovative life sciences companies in China. With that, we're going to see great opportunities for partnering."

Disclosure: none.


 

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