AstraZeneca in China
Overview
AstraZeneca is the largest multinational pharmaceutical company in the prescription market in China, as surveyed by IMS International in 2007. AstraZeneca China has its headquarters in Shanghai, with 28 branch offices in major cities across China’s mainland, as well as one office in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It has nearly 3,300 employees working in manufacturing, sales, clinical research and new product development. AstraZeneca is committed to being "In China, For China" with long-term planning and investment. In 2001, the company established its largest manufacturing site in Asia with an initial investment of $134 million. In April 2006, AstraZeneca announced a further investment of $35 million to increase capacity.
In May 2006, AstraZeneca announced that it would invest $100 million to establish its R&D base, the AstraZeneca Innovation Center China (ICC) in Shanghai. ICC puts its focus on Translational Science. Partnering with major hospitals and medical research ICC aims to fully support the development of China’s indigenous innovation. ICC’s initial therapeutic area is cancer.
AstraZeneca China Mission
³ AstraZeneca's mission is to develop, supply and market innovative drugs of high quality within our prioritized therapeutic areas in China.
³ We are determined to conduct our business responsibly, strengthen our long-term commitment to China and become a partner of Choice.
Importance of China
Fast-developing economies such as China continue to offer new opportunities for the industry to gain access to an expanding number of patients who can benefit from medicines. Pharmaceutical companies that are able to make efficient investment decisions, fully utilise their intellectual property and manage relationships with their stakeholders should be well positioned to benefit from the demand for healthcare and the new opportunities for the industry.
Being one of the most important emerging markets, China is projected to be the 3rd largest world economy, and amongst the top 3 pharmaceutical markets in the world with sales of around $43 billion by 2012.
Growth in China
28% Growth in 2007 with 9 No.1 Brands
In China, the growth and expansion strategy of the past four years has continued to build our presence and sales (excluding Hong Kong) achieved $422 million for the first time in 2007. We are the largest multinational pharmaceutical company in the prescription market in China, as surveyed by IMS International.
During 2007, our investments in China increased with the opening of an innovation discovery research centre in Shanghai and the announcement of several external collaborations, including a new clinical pharmacology unit in Peking University and a translational science laboratory in Guangdong Province People’s Hospital.
In 2007, AZ China achieved US$422m in sales and had 9 brands with No.1 market share in its class. These No.1 brands included Diprivan, Naropin, Betaloc Oral, Losec IV, Nexium Oral, Casodex, Arimidex, Rhinocort Aqua, Pulmicort Resp
Cardiovascular and Gastrointestinal continue to be the two biggest therapeutic areas for AZ China and they account for 43% and 28% of the 2007 total sales representatively.
