DSM China Campus opening marks the start of a new era

HEERLEN, NETHERLANDS - Royal DSM N.V., the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company headquartered in the Netherlands, today announces the opening of its DSM China Campus in the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park in Pudong New Area, Shanghai. The Campus will advance local research and development competence and as it is one of the first LEED Gold-certified buildings in China, it will become a symbol of DSM's sustainable development in China.

As DSM China's regional headquarters, the opening of DSM China Campus marks a new phase of development and innovation in China for DSM. The DSM China Campus contains all DSM Shanghai offices, as well as several business groups and the DSM China R&D Centre. The Campus is DSM's largest and most important research facility outside Europe and the USA, and is intended to act as an incubator for DSM's local innovation competence.

Jan Zuidam, Deputy Chairman of the DSM Managing Board, said: "We know China not only as a market and a production base, but also as a strategic starting point for research and development. In DSM's accelerated vision 2010 with focus on Life Sciences and Materials Sciences China plays an important role regarding growth and innovation."

(MSNBC)

China Medical buys HPV detection system

NEW YORK - Medical device maker China Medical Technologies Inc. said Tuesday it bought the right to sell a human papillomavirus detection system from Molecular Diagnostic Technologies Ltd. for $345 million.

The Beijing-based company said it will pay for the HPV-DNA Biosensor Chip and Surface Plasmon Resonance based Analysis System over the next year. It expects to close the deal in December 2008 or January 2009, with the final payment to be made a year later.

The DNA chip is able to genetically identify 24 common strains of HPV, including strains that can cause cervical cancer and others that cause genital warts. The SPR system analyzes the data on the DNA chip, and is used in molecular diagnostics to identify proteins and ailments including infectious diseases, cancers and heart and immune system disorders.

China Medical Technologies said about 50 million HPV-related gynecological tests are done in China every year, and about 120 million women should receive cervical cancer tests. Assuming 30 percent of those women need HPV tests, it estimated revenue from the HPV-DNA Biosensor Chip could reach $700 million per year.

Shares of China Medical Technologies climbed $3.65, or 12.8 percent, to $32.22 in morning trading.

(Associated Press)

China chemicals starve Indian pharma

At the Bakul factory outside of Mumbai, they are busy making the ingredients for a range of medicines, including theophylene to help combat asthma.

Chemical costs have soared in India

But over the past couple of months, the cost of the chemicals they need has rocketed. Suddenly, raw materials are in short supply.

"Prices are going up for what is available, but quite a lot of is not available at all," says Yogin Majmudar, Bakul's managing director.

"We've had to pay more than double, just to keep our plant going."

Chinese effect

Mr Majmudar points to China as the root cause of the problem.

If the prices of the raw materials for controlled drugs rises any further, there's a chance that the production of such drugs will simply stop J S Shinde, head of the Maharashtra State Chemists & Druggists Association

Over the past decade, many chemicals factories in India have closed down, as they were unable to compete with imports from China.

But during the Olympics, Mr Majmudar says factories around Beijing have been shut in an effort to cut pollution.

That has led to a shortage of raw materials, which has pushed up prices everywhere.

"It's not that all the materials used to come from China," he says.

"But because China has stopped, there's pressure on materials coming from Taiwan, Korea, Europe. And everyone's taking a little bit advantage and jacking up their prices."

Price curbs

For drugs manufacturers, this feels like a perfect storm. Their margins were already squeezed, because of the cost of oil and the rising value of the Chinese currency.

Ms Piramal says price controls hurt the poor in the end

But they cannot just pass on these extra costs, as drug prices in India are tightly controlled by the government.

Swati Piramal from Piramal Healthcare says her company has been using up its existing stocks of raw materials. But now she is having to sell some drugs at a loss, and she says it is simply not sustainable.

"Here in India we have inflation running at 10%, shortages of raw materials, and input costs are rising," she says.

"If you have price control, what choice do you have? You have the choice of cutting down production, and that's when it'll hurt the consumer, the common person."

Shortages loom

Manufacturers say some drugs may already be hard to find in the smaller towns, but the problem is only just about to bite.

Drugs shortages could result and prices are soaring

J S Shinde, head of the Maharashtra State Chemists & Druggists Association, thinks that manufacturers will simply stop making the drugs that are not profitable and that a shortage of medicines could well be on the cards.

"If the prices of the raw materials for controlled drugs rises any further, there's a chance that the production of such drugs will simply stop," he says.

"I think it's highly likely that after September there'll be shortages of those drugs in India."

Rising prices

In an effort to tackle the problem, the government regulator last week agreed to price rises for over 30 medicines.

But all eyes are now focussed on what happens once the Olympics are over.

Will Chinese suppliers re-open for business, or will raw materials still be difficult to find?

All of which leaves the government on the horns of a dilemma.

Elections are approaching, and it wants to stop prices rising.

But that may mean some important drugs become harder to find.

Neither option will be popular with voters.

But they may have to accept that there is little the government can do, and that the era of cheap medicines from China is over, at least for the moment.

(BBC)

India, China to jointly work on herbal cure for diabetes

NEW DELHI: They might have their fair share of border disputes. But both countries agree on one thing for sure — the need for a herbal drug to combat diabetes.

This has made scientists from India and China join hands to develop the world's first Sino-Indian herbal drug against a disease that affects 90 million people in the two countries.

While India has shortlisted the plant, Gymnema Sylvetra, the Chinese just recently finished reviewing 250 plants to zoom in on one potential candidate.

Known locally as 'Gurmara Booti', raisins from Gymnema, found mostly in southern India and Madhya Pradesh, have been recommended for use for centuries in reducing blood sugar, glycosylated hemoglobin and glycosylated plasma proteins.

The project is headed by Ranjit Roy Chaudhury of the Indian Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN) in India. China is represented by endocrinologist Ji Yao Wang of Shanghai Medical College and Prof Tong Xia Olin from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

According to Chaudhury, both sides are all set to start the 18-month-long clinical trials to document the plant's efficacy and finalise it's exact dosage.

Around 100 moderate type 2 diabetics will be made to pop a pill containing the plant extracts twice a day and their blood sugar will be recorded at three medical institutes — PGI, Chandigarh, KG Medical College, Lucknow, and INCLEN, Thiruvananthapuram.

Indian scientists will compare Gymnema's efficacy to Metformin — the present day popular drug for diabetics. Dr Chaudhury said the scientists in India and China will conduct their respective clinical trials.

Finally, when the efficacy of the plants is established, the two countries will then combine the plant extracts to see if it becomes even more effective.

"Since Gymnema is already being used in ayurvedic medicine for diabetes, we won't have to conduct a separate study to see if the plant is safe. However, when we mix the Indian and Chinese plants to create a new allopathic drug, we will have to conduct a six-week toxicology study. The final Sino-Indian diabetic drug should be ready after a year from then," Dr Chaudhury said.

He said that the collaborative project will pool in the strengths of both the countries. While the Chinese are better in standardization of drugs and identifying plants, India is known for conducting highly effective clinical trials and identifying side-effects of drugs.

"We think this herbal drug will not have the usual side-effects of allopathic drugs like weight gain and cardiac problems. It will also protect the kidney," Dr Chaudhury added.

Asked why the project had taken time to start off, Dr Chaudhury said: "The main hurdle has been standardization of raw material. We want to be certain that every plant used is the same. We now know that if you collect a plant at different times of the year, you will probably get different levels of activity. So we ensured the plants were collected at the same time."

"We also know if you collect the same plant from different places, it may vary in its effectiveness. We are using only the leaves of the Gymnema. So we aren’t destroying the plant," Dr Chaudhury added.

In ancient Indian texts, Gymnema is referred to as 'Gurmar', which means "sugar killer" in Sanskrit. Gymnema leaves, whether extracted or infused into tea, suppress glucose absorption and reduce the sensation of sweetness in foods. Scientists say Gymnema increases the effectiveness of insulin rather than causing the body to produce more.

(The Times Of India )

Ascendium in agreed bid for Medstar

• buy out for 62 pence per share in cash, values at about 17 million pounds

LONDON - China Medstar Ltd. and Ascendium Group Ltd. said on Wednesday they have reached agreement on the terms of Ascendium's recommended offer to buy out Medstar for 62 pence per share in cash, which values

The price represents a premium of about 96.8 percent to Medstar stock's closing price on May 1, and values it at about 17 million pounds. The company also said Ascendium has acceptances for 79.35 percent of Medstar.

The British Virgin Islands-based Ascendium is held by Concord Medical Services Holding Ltd. for the purposes of acquisition and investment in the Chinese medical equipment market.

(Thomson Financial)

Philips teams up with China hospital

Philips is expected to sign a medical research partnership agreement on Wednesday with one of China’s biggest hospitals, a first for multinational companies in the country.

The Dutch group, which is the world number three in medical imaging equipment, is set to form a partnership with the West China Hospital in Sichuan province, which, with 4,300 beds and 2m outpatients, is the largest single-building hospital in China and one of the largest in the world.

The state-owned West China Hospital, an affiliate of Sichuan University, is also one of the oldest hospitals in China.

The agreement covers eight projects and will last for seven years. Its aim is to help doctors interpret medical imagery and diagnose illnesses earlier by developing an information system and devising faster procedures. Philips hopes to sell the information system to other hospitals around the world.

The projects will focus on diagnosing illnesses such as heart disease and stroke, and finding biological indicators of mental illnesses.

“What is important is the work flow, not the imaging,” Rick Harwig, Philips’ chief technology officer, told the Financial Times. “You need to develop the algorithms to extract the information from the data.”

Philips, which has carried out research in Shanghai since 2000, now conducts 10 per cent of such work in China.

In the medical sciences however, most other multinational companies preferred to donate money towards research in China rather than conduct their own, according to Mr Harwig.

“Money is important, but at the end of the day it is abundant. Scientific expertise is not,” he said.

Some $7.5bn of medical equipment was sold in China in 2006, according to the US commerce department.

Mr Harwig said few other hospitals in the world matched the size of Chinese hospitals. “The basic difference is that they have so many more patients, so you could derive meaningful analyses from the statistics,” he said.

Certain illnesses, such as cardiovascular diseases, are also more prevalent in China, which makes the country an ideal place to conduct research into them.

(Financial Times)

Pfizer to cut costs, expand in China

New York - Pfizer Inc. says it plans to outsource more drug manufacturing, lower costs ahead of generic competition for its blockbuster cholesterol drug, Lipitor, and expand broadly in China.

At a meeting with investment analysts, the New York-based drugmaker also reaffirmed its outlook for 2008 profit and sales Wednesday, still forecasting adjusted profit of $2.35 to $2.45 per share and revenue of $47 billion to $49 billion.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial are expecting profit of $2.37 per share and revenue of $48.08 billion.

Shares rose 22 cents to $22.46 in premarket trading.

"We are proactively managing our total cost structure to do what is necessary to size the company appropriately to align with our revenues so that we deliver growing profitability after the Lipitor loss of exclusivity," said Chief Financial Officer Frank D'Amelio, in a statement.

The key patent on Lipitor, the world's best-selling drug, expires in November 2011.

Pfizer said it wants to boost its market share in Asia to 6 percent by 2012, up from 4 percent currently, and will expand operations in China from the 110 cities it now serves to more than 650 cities.

Pfizer also said the number of experimental drugs in its pipeline which will move forward from midstage testing to late-stage trials will range from 15 to 20 by the end of 2009. In an effort to stave off the threat of generic competition to its top-line, the company said it will grow its Phase III programs by 50 percent to 75 percent to between 24 and 28 programs by December 2009 -- up from 16 programs currently.

Three compounds moving to late-stage development include: CP-751871, a treatment for gastrointestinal, genitourinary, lung and breast cancer; CP-690550, to treat rheumatoid arthritis, transplant rejection, psoriasis, Crohn's disease, and asthma; and diabetes drug PF-734200.

Pfizer is targeting 15 to 20 regulatory submissions between 2010 and 2012.

The company said it will speed clinical development on 20 programs in disease areas such as arthritis, cancer, pain and diabetes, and terminate 24 clinical and preclinical programs so it can reinvest in high-value areas.

Pfizer said it currently has 26 biotech drugs spanning 8 treatment areas and has set the goal of becoming a top-tier biotherapeutics company.

Pfizer also said it is forming a new business unit focused solely on cancer drugs, a market expected to more than double in the next decade. The oncology business unit will help Pfizer expedite launches of new cancer agents, and focus research efforts on cancers common in Asia, including those of the liver, esophagus and nasopharynx.

(The Associated Press)

WuXi to buy US biopharma company AppTec

• the biggest takeover of a U.S. company by a Chinese one since Lenovo bought IBM's PC business in December 2004.
• Chinese companies expected to eventually become significant rivals to U.S. contract research organizations.

WuXi PharmaTech, a Chinese pharmaceutical research company, said late Thursday that it would buy St. Paul-based AppTec Laboratory Services Inc. in a deal worth $162.7 million.

The Shanghai-based company, which raised $185 million in a U.S. initial public offering in 2007, provides drug-discovery and development services to pharmaceutical companies, including nine of the world's biggest 10 drugmakers.

WuXi PharmaTech, which also makes active ingredients of drugs used in clinical trials, in November said it expects its full-year 2007 revenue to almost double to up to $135 million.

Privately held AppTec employs about 400 employees at its St. Paul headquarters and at facilities in Philadelphia and Atlanta. Its 2007 revenue is estimated at $70 million to $72 million. WuXi said that AppTec's annual revenue growth rate has been about 46 percent since 2004.

"Investors are accustomed to American companies trying to get a (research) foothold in China, but this is a case of a Chinese company acquiring a U.S. foothold," said John Kreger, an analyst with William Blair & Co.

"The big message is that for contract research organizations to win and thrive long-term, you need to be global," said Kreger.

He predicted the AppTec acquisition will allow WuXi to forge more deals and relationships with U.S. drugmakers.

Although it is not a very large financial transaction, Kreger said it could tempt other Chinese research outfits to locate in the United States, and access capital by going public.

He said the companies could eventually become significant rivals to U.S. contract research organizations, which include Covance Inc. and Quintiles Transnational Corp.

WuXi PharmaTech and other Chinese research outsourcing companies are expanding rapidly as the world's biggest drug makers, such as Roche, Novartis and Pfizer, are moving more drug development jobs to China to save time and money.

It costs as much as $1 billion and 12 years to discover a new drug. The cost of a researcher in China is as little as 20 percent of that in the United States, and the country has a large population eager to participate in drug testing.

"Drug research outsourcing is a sunrise business in China, and WuXi PharmaTech has a big potential to grow," said Yang Chun, analyst at TX Investment Consulting Co.

It also represents the growing buying power and international ambitions of Chinese companies. Bloomberg News reported the acquisition is the biggest takeover of a U.S. company by a Chinese one since Lenovo Group Ltd. bought IBM Corp.'s PC business for $1.75 billion in December 2004.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008.

Reuters/Business Journay

About WuXi PharmaTech

Founded in 2000, Shanghai-based WuXi PharmaTech is the leading China-based pharmaceutical and biotechnology R&D outsourcing company. As a research- driven and customer-focused company, WuXi PharmaTech provides pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies a broad and integrated portfolio of laboratory and research manufacturing services throughout the drug discovery and development process. WuXi PharmaTech's services are designed to assist its global partners in shortening the cycle and lowering the cost of drug discovery and development by providing cost-effective and efficient outsourcing solutions that save its customers both time and money. Its operations are grouped into two segments: laboratory services, consisting of discovery chemistry, service biology, analytical, pharmaceutical development and process development services, and research manufacturing, focusing on manufacturing of advanced intermediates and active pharmaceutical ingredients for R&D use. In 2007, its 80 customers included nine of the world's top ten pharmaceutical companies by revenue. For more information, please visit: http://www.wuxipharmatech.com .

About AppTec

With over 20 years experience, AppTec is a trusted leader in providing high-value testing, contract R&D, and cGMP manufacturing services for the biopharmaceutical and medical device industries. AppTec offers a fully integrated approach for the development of highly regulated products such as biopharmaceuticals, traditional pharmaceuticals, cellular therapeutics, medical devices, and combination and tissue-based products. Possessing the full set of competencies, facilities, and key personnel necessary, AppTec helps clients take their products efficiently and cost-effectively through the product development process. The company has three state-of-the art facilities, which are located in St. Paul, MN; Philadelphia, PA; and Atlanta, GA. All AppTec facilities are FDA registered and GLP/GMP compliant. Additional qualifications include ISO certification, AAALAC accreditation, FDA registration for HCT/Ps, and accreditation by the American Association of Tissue Banks.