Sanofi-Aventis Seeks Research Partnerships in China

Unlike its big pharma peers, Sanofi-Aventis (SNY) will not build a research center in China. Instead, the company will seek to establish half a dozen research partnerships with China universities and state-sponsored research institutions. Potential targets mentioned for the research were cancer and rheumatoid arthritis.

The pronouncement came from the head of Sanofi-Aventis’ R&D operation, Marc Cluzel, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal (see article, subscription required).

Dr. Cuzel said that the advantage of working with existing institutions is the innovation that is already there. Cuzel called China’s scientists “imaginative.” Sanofi-Aventis brings its experience shepherding drugs through the regulatory process, which is experience that these scientists may not have. Profits from any drugs that eventually emerge from the process would be shared, he said.

Cluzel noted that the number of workers with MA degrees in China is about equal to those in the US, though China still lags in the number of potential employees with PhDs. He said that China was doing high-quality fundamental research, which should yield innovative drugs by 2015.

Sanofi entered into its first China R&D partnership in September 2007. The company and the Institute of Hematology and Blood Diseases Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, in Tianjin China will study cancer stem cells as a means to discover novel drugs for acute myeloid leukemia (see story).

In November 2007, Sanofi-Aventis also announced plans to invest 70 million euros ($103 million) to build a flu-vaccine factory in Shenzhen, located in the southern part of China. Construction will begin this year, with expectations that the plant will be operational in 2012. Initially, the facility will have the ability to product 25 million doses, all of them intended for the market in China, but the plant will have the potential to double that level of production over the next 10 to 15 years (see story).

According to the Wall Street Journal article, many people may think of China as a place where generics and APIs are made, or a place where counterfeit drugs are substituted for the real thing, but not a country that is home to biopharma innovation – a sentiment not shared by readers of the ChinaBio Today. Our Editor, Greg Scott, said in recent interview, that China will be the #1 player in biopharma in 15 to 20 years (see article).

Disclosure: none.

Comments

[NormanLepoff, M.D.]

Very smart for SNY. Good move!