Dr. Darren Ji is Vice President and Global Head of Roche Partnering, Asia and Emerging Markets. He is responsible for Roche’s partnering in emerging market countries plus Japan, and of course China. Dr. Ji talks about Roche, its position in China and its successful local partnerships, plus drug innovation in China now and in the future.

Dr. Ji worked for Procter & Gamble for 11 years in drug R&D and then East Asia bioscience business development. He was co-founder and CEO of PharmaLegacy Laboratories, a Shanghai pre-clinical CRO. And he was President and CEO of NPBiosciences of Singapore. Dr. Ji obtained his MD from China Medical University, a PhD from the University of Sheffield, and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

ChinaBio: How important is China to Roche?

Dr. Ji: Roche has a huge presence in China. Between Pharma and Diagnostics, we have over 5,000 employees in China. Last year, we were the number four multinational in China pharma revenues and we continue growing in double digits.

We have a very good presence in China because we provide unique therapies. That is our attraction. From a partnership point of view, we focus on scientific innovation. We focus on bringing new products to market for unmet needs.

When we form partnerships, we look for unique differentiators, either first-in-class or best-in-class. Other companies also claim these distinctions. We don’t just say it, we live it. We don’t do biosimilars, branded generics or generics. We are focused solely on innovation-based medicines.

You may wonder how a big company like ours can sustain a momentum of always being innovative. It is simply because, number one, we are very strong in science.

Number two, we are unique because we have a Diagnostics business that ties in strongly with pharmaceutical development, enabling personalized healthcare. We are the number one multinational pharma that systematically combines drugs and the diagnostic tools to go with them. We believe the future lies in personalized healthcare.

On the partnering side, we have two elements. We are looking for China innovation and hope to bring that innovation to global markets. China not only has a big market, but it is also becoming a big driver of innovation in biotech and life science. Strong government funding has supported it, and overseas returnees are bringing know-how from Western countries to China.

We are starting to see a lot of innovation coming out of China. We want to have a strong network and a continuous connection to the scientists and entrepreneurs in China so that we can bring that innovation to global markets.

The other element is that we are looking to China to become the second largest – it probably already is the second largest – pharmaceutical market in the world. We want to enrich the local portfolio by bringing products from outside of Roche to China. This will help patients locally. These are the two elements of our strategy for China.

China is the largest country in the emerging market group. My responsibility also includes other emerging markets, both in Asia and outside of Asia, in countries such as Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Turkey and South Africa. Actually, it is over 130 countries. At this moment, China, Brazil and Russia are our main focus.

How do we obtain this innovation? We have our own team of four people in China. We are constantly going to life science partnering and networking events. We also sponsor conferences like the ChinaBio® Partnering Forum. Our 2014 Roche Reception at the ChinaBio® Partnering Forum attracted over 600 biopharma executives.

Because of our experience, both my team and I have very strong connections to the life science community in China. We do a landscape scan of China innovation every few months. We are amazed that each time we find new companies and new entrepreneurs. We keep these landscapes updated and we  ensure we find ways to get and stay connected with the companies.   

For China, building trust is critical; the practice is different from global, the US or Europe. There you put something on the table, discuss it in black-and-white terms, and talk about how much you want to pay. Of course, there is an element of a relationship, but the relationship part is greatly intensified in China. If we don’t have a relationship, people don’t trust us enough and they won’t put assets on the table. Even if they want to find a partner, they have concerns that their asset may be taken away. In China, we really focus a lot more on relationship-building, trust and communication.

ChinaBio: Has Roche in-licensed a drug from China for global distribution?

Dr. Ji: Not yet but we have some interesting things progressing. There are two reasons for that. The primary reason is timing. It’s not that long ago that China started to produce innovative medicine. It’s only in the recent years that licensable assets started to become a reality. Before that, there was no financial muscle, no viable regulatory pathway, no seasoned drug hunters, no highly specialized educated workforce working toward innovative drug development.

We have seen a number of new drug candidates coming out of China in the last five years. It feels like a floodgate has been opened. New drug research and innovative platforms are appearing everywhere. Most of these are still very early. But they show good promise, good science and good potential market strength. And they have global utility, not only usefulness for China.

ChinaBio: What are you looking for in a partner? Do you look for science or for talent?

Dr. Ji: Both. It has to be both. You have to have science. As I said earlier, we are not going to develop biosimilars or generics. Science is the foundation. But people are the drivers. Only a talented entrepreneur will turn science into medicine.

We also look for personal chemistry. The two parties must be able to work together toward common goals. We must share the vision of eventually delivering medicine to patients, not just making money. We want our partner to share the same sense of mission. We want to deliver science to patients.

ChinaBio: Roche’s out-licensing deal with Ascletis is one example of a China partnership. Can you tell us about it?

Dr. Ji: Ascletis was set up by Dr. Jinzi Wu, who was a senior executive at GSK responsible for their infectious disease program. He is one of the 1000 Talents Program that was designed by China to bring back top scientists who had moved abroad. We engineered a very creative model with him for developing hepatitis C therapies.

Globally, multinationals were developing new generation drugs for HCV. We did as well. By the time we got our clinical result, which was very encouraging, worldwide competition was very fierce.

We decided to develop the molecule for China, which has a huge need for next-generation HCV therapies. We began to look for a domestic China partner to bring the molecule to China. Ascletis was chosen. We structured a way to be involved in clinical design. We put our technical expertise into the project, but we let Ascletis take the full lead in developing a clinical management program.

That has several advantages. Being a small company and very self-driven, Ascletis is a lot quicker to make decisions. We provide technical support as needed.  It worked out very well. They hit their IND filing time ahead of schedule. We very much look forward to continuing working with them to achieve development and hopefully market success as well.

ChinaBio: In the context of Emerging Markets, how important is China?

Dr. Ji: China is hugely important. At this time, China has strategic importance. There are two parts to China: looking for drug candidates from China for global markets and then looking for drugs for the China market. Right now, our major effort is on global licensing.

ChinaBio: How does China differ from the rest of Asia?

Dr. Ji: The China market is a lot bigger than the rest of Asia. We either capitalize on it or we leave money on the table and don’t deliver drugs to patients who need them. Emerging markets are going to provide more than 70% of absolute growth in next five years and China is the biggest piece of this growth.

The second difference is innovation. In Asia, Japan, Korea and China are probably the top three countries that drive drug research and development. The potential for China is tremendous. In the next 10 years, China is poised to become a major innovator for new therapies. The sheer amount of investment both from the government and private capital into the pharma infrastructure is amazing.

But that is not the key. The key is people. So many people are coming back from overseas to China, to universities, to research institutes and to set up companies. They bring back tremendous amounts of know-how from the rest of the world to fuel productivity in China. They have the right skill sets, but more importantly, they have the right communication skills. In China, the returnees are better positioned than those in any other Asian countries to communicate with the global community. They have the power to communicate out and connect with the world.

A third difference – and this is very unique to China – is related to the large patient base in China but also related to the large collection of demographic patient data. For years, China has forbidden export of human tissue for analysis. China has a huge population base that suffers from diseases, ranging from cancer to neurological disorders to rare diseases in China. The data is a big resource to identify new targets, pathways, genetic connections and epigenetics. From there, you can test molecules and advance them into the market in a short period of time.

How can that benefit the world’s health market? It has to be transformed to output – the collection of data and the acceleration of drug development based on those populations.

ChinaBio: That’s a big project.

Dr. Ji: It is. The government has its own initiative, but more initiatives can be expected. Private initiatives can tie in to this "big data." This is the open space concept. It’s a big adventure for all stakeholders who are interested in it. I haven’t seen much in the way of a solution of how to harness the data and make it efficient to use. That’s still to come. Many issues must be worked through.

ChinaBio: Any final thoughts?

Dr. Ji: Roche established its China presence in 1994. It actually started here early last century, though in a different structure than the current one. We have sufficient credibility with government, regulators and key opinion leaders, and people love our science and our medicines. Our innovation-based approach is working. We look forward to having more opportunities to work with external partners in China to jointly transform novel ideas into medicines.

Disclosure: none.

ChinaBio: Thanks, Dr. Ji, for your time and your insights.