西
方制药巨头正在向快速增长的亚洲市场发起新一轮猛攻：针对亚洲更为普遍的疾病研发相关药品。
Associated Press
4月，在印度高哈蒂一家国有医院里，一位护士在给一个19岁的结核病患者打针。
西方制药巨擘聚焦亚洲的策略标志着制药行业针对西方病人研发医药的历史开始出现转变。虽然跨国制药商可能还在研究针对亚洲实验对象的实验药品，但它们会将临床试验结果拿到欧美市场获取监管机构的批准。
西方制药商过去经常绕开亚洲特有的病史情况。鉴于环境、遗传和一些行为习惯等原因，肝病、某些癌症和部分传染病在中国和泰国等亚洲国家更为普遍。
制药公司目前一窝蜂涌入亚洲市场，其目的在于利用亚洲的高增长帮助本公司应对欧美市场的价格压力和产品老化问题。现在买得起西方药品的亚洲人为数甚众，而且人数还在不断增长。里昂证券(CLSA)的分析师马里斯(David Maris)透露，目前在中国出售的处方药总价值约400亿美元，且中国市场每年以25%左右的速度快速增长，而美国和欧洲的医药市场年增长率只有2%至5%。里昂证券总部位于香港，是一个专注亚洲业务的投资集团。
考虑到亚洲的市场规模，更多的医药业高管开始将亚洲地区具体的医药需求视作其潜在的利润来源。里昂证券的数据显示，欧美制药商在过去一年已投入了超过10亿美元，专门用于培育亚洲地区的药品研发和制造能力。
还有更多投资滚滚而来。拜耳公司(Bayer AG)上月宣布裁员时表示，希望利用裁员所节省的费用扩展亚洲的业务能力，包括在新兴市场增加2,500个职位。
辉瑞公司五年前在上海成立了一个研究所，建立了一个由医生和学者组成的专家队伍，为当地病人的临床需要提供帮助。这家总部位于纽约的公司看到了消炎药带来的商机，因消炎药为肝病治疗带来希望。肝病可随着乙型肝炎病毒的传染而发展恶化，乙肝的发病率在亚洲国家比西方要常见得多。据世界卫生组织(World Health Organization)的统计数据，中国和其它一些亚洲国家40岁以前的人群中，70%至90%都感染了乙肝病毒，而北美及西欧国家这一比例只有不到20%。
强生与清华大学的合作是药物研发合作的范例。该项目初期实验室工作的目标是更深入地了解乙肝、肺结核和禽流感等疾病，为研制新治疗方法做前期准备。清华大学有许多研究中心，谷歌（Google）和微软（Microsoft）等美国科技巨头的驻华办事处都设立在清华周围。
从2008年开始，强生就与天津医科大学开始合作，研究改善头颈癌等亚洲常见癌症的治疗方法。
天津医科大学位于北京西南80英里处，拥有2000个左右的癌症住院病床，从每位病人身上采集肿瘤组织和血细胞。强生肿瘤学部门主管海特（William Hait）说，强生希望通过与这所大学的合作能够更快地确认不同的生物标记，例如基因或蛋白质，从而研究哪些药物对癌症患者最有效。
强生帮助培训当地研究员如何进行详细的基因和分析研究，因为他们没有足够掌握这些技术的人员。他说，培训时间比预期要长，但研究项目已经启动并正在进行。
百时美施贵宝（Bristol-Myers）则采取了不同的策略，授权一家中国公司开发一种能够治疗胃癌、食管癌和肺癌的药物配方。
这家纽约医药公司认为本地公司来做比较好，因此出售了该药物在中国的开发和营销权。根据授权条款，先声药业将在整个中期人体试验过程中负责对研究的管理和资金支持。
百时美施贵宝业务监督负责人来文（Jeremy Levin）说，虽然这可能意味着放弃在中国销售任何与之相关产品的短期利益，但百时美施贵宝能从中学到长期的经验；我们正从其他国家的其他公司学习经验。
针对亚洲流行疾病的全部药物还需要数年才能研发出来。医药行业咨询机构艾美仕市场研究（IMS Health）中国区总经理Sati Sian说，但是，研究这些药物能产生即时效益，对本地医药需求的关注会使亚洲患者和政府对公司产生良好印象。
然而，公司可能会遭到病人的一些质疑。
48岁的北京居民池先生说，西方医药公司努力研发更多新药是好事，但他不喜欢这些公司为了先把这些药卖给中国人而集中在亚洲更常见的疾病治疗上。身为物业经理的池先生说，我想知道为什么你们这些公司不先让自己国家的人用这些药。
池先生因肠胃不适等着周一去看医生，他一般比较喜欢用传统中药"调理"身体机能，比如睡眠问题等，因为中药是天然成分制成，副作用比西药少。
Shirley S. Wang / Jonathan D. Rockoff
（更新完成）
（本文版权归道琼斯公司所有，未经许可不得翻译或转载。）
Big drug makers from the West are making a new kind of push into fast-growing Asian markets: creating drugs for diseases that are more prevalent there.
Within the past year, Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drug company by sales, began work in China on an anti-inflammatory compound to treat liver disease, a big killer in Asia. Health-products giant Johnson & Johnson announced last month a collaboration with a university in Beijing to research infectious diseases threatening the region. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. also last month announced a partnership with Nanjing-based Simcere Pharmaceutical Group to develop a cancer treatment.
The approach marks a shift from the industry's history of designing medicines for patients in the West. While multinational drug makers might study experimental medicines in Asian subjects, the companies would use the clinical-trial results to gain regulatory approval in the U.S. and Europe.
Western drug makers often bypassed medical conditions specific to Asia. Liver disease, certain cancers and some infectious diseases are more prevalent in countries like China and Thailand because of differences in the environment, genetic factors and some behaviors.
Firms are now pouring into Asian markets with the goal that growth there will help them cope with pricing pressures and aging products in the U.S. and Europe. Sizable and increasing numbers of Asians can afford to buy Western drugs. About $40 billion of prescription drugs are sold in China, for instance, and the market is growing about 25% a year, according to David Maris, an analyst at CLSA, an Asia-focused investment group headquartered in Hong Kong. The pharmaceutical market in the U.S. and Europe is growing 2% to 5% a year.
Given the market's size, more pharmaceutical executives are starting to see the region's specific medical needs as potential sources of profit. U.S. and European drug makers have invested more than a billion dollars over the past year into building research-and-development and manufacturing capabilities in the area, according to CLSA.
And more investment is on the way. In announcing job cuts last month, Bayer AG said it wanted to use the savings for the 'expansion of capacities in Asia,' including the addition of 2,500 jobs in emerging markets.
Pfizer opened a research facility in Shanghai five years ago and established a network of doctors and academics to give input on the clinical needs of patients there. The New York company saw an opportunity in an anti-inflammatory compound that showed promise for treating liver disease. The disease can follow infection with the hepatitis B virus, which is much more common in Asia than in the West. Some 70% to 90% of people in China and some other Asian countries are infected with hepatitis B by the age of 40, compared to fewer than 20% in North America and Western Europe, according to the World Health Organization.
Johnson & Johnson's collaboration with Tsinghua University -- one of the top universities in Beijing whose tree-lined campus is filled with gleaming research centers and surrounded by Chinese offices of U.S. technology giants Google and Microsoft -- illustrates a partnership approach to drug R&D. The goal of the project's early-stage laboratory work is to better understand diseases like hepatitis B, tuberculosis and bird flu, paving the way for new therapies.
Since 2008, J&J has been involved in another partnership with Tianjin Medical University to improve treatment of head, neck and other cancers prevalent in Asia.
Tianjin Medical University, about 80 miles southeast of Beijing, has about 2,000 inpatient cancer beds. It is collecting tumor tissues and blood cells from each patient. By collaborating with the university, J&J hopes to more quickly identify distinctive biomarkers, such as genes or proteins, that might signal which drugs would work best for what cancer patients, said William Hait, J&J's head of oncology.
J&J helped train local researchers on how to do detailed genetic and molecular work because they 'didn't have critical mass of people with these capabilities,' said Dr. Hait. The training has taken longer than expected, but the research projects are up and running, he said.
Bristol-Myers is taking yet a different approach -- by licensing to a Chinese firm the development of a compound that shows promise for treating gastric, esophageal and lung cancers.
The New York drug maker sold the compound's Chinese development and marketing rights after deciding a local company could do the work more efficiently. Under the terms, Simcere will run and fund the research through mid-stage human development.
Though this might mean giving up the short-term benefit of selling any resulting products in China, Bristol-Myers can draw long-term lessons from the experience, said Jeremy Levin, who oversees transactions at Bristol-Myers. 'We're learning from others in other countries,' he said.
All of the drugs targeting diseases prevalent in Asia remain years off. Yet, their development can pay immediate dividends by generating goodwill with Asian patients and governments impressed by the focus on local medical needs, said Sati Sian, general manager in China of IMS Health, a drug industry consultancy.
Companies may face some skepticism from patients, however.
Mr. Chi, a 48-year-old Beijing resident who asked to be identified only by his family name, said it is a positive that Western drug companies are trying to make more new medicines but he doesn't like their focus on treating diseases more common in Asian populations with the intention of selling them first to people in China. 'I would wonder why you [the company] don't start giving it to people in your country first,' said Mr. Chi, a building manager.
Mr. Chi, who was waiting to see a doctor Monday because he was suffering from an upset stomach, generally prefers traditional Chinese medicines for 'regulating' bodily processes, like problems with sleeping, because they are made of natural ingredients and have fewer side effects than Western medicines.
Shirley S. Wang / Jonathan D. Rockoff
Within the past year, Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drug company by sales, began work in China on an anti-inflammatory compound to treat liver disease, a big killer in Asia. Health-products giant Johnson & Johnson announced last month a collaboration with a university in Beijing to research infectious diseases threatening the region. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. also last month announced a partnership with Nanjing-based Simcere Pharmaceutical Group to develop a cancer treatment.
The approach marks a shift from the industry's history of designing medicines for patients in the West. While multinational drug makers might study experimental medicines in Asian subjects, the companies would use the clinical-trial results to gain regulatory approval in the U.S. and Europe.
Western drug makers often bypassed medical conditions specific to Asia. Liver disease, certain cancers and some infectious diseases are more prevalent in countries like China and Thailand because of differences in the environment, genetic factors and some behaviors.
Firms are now pouring into Asian markets with the goal that growth there will help them cope with pricing pressures and aging products in the U.S. and Europe. Sizable and increasing numbers of Asians can afford to buy Western drugs. About $40 billion of prescription drugs are sold in China, for instance, and the market is growing about 25% a year, according to David Maris, an analyst at CLSA, an Asia-focused investment group headquartered in Hong Kong. The pharmaceutical market in the U.S. and Europe is growing 2% to 5% a year.
Given the market's size, more pharmaceutical executives are starting to see the region's specific medical needs as potential sources of profit. U.S. and European drug makers have invested more than a billion dollars over the past year into building research-and-development and manufacturing capabilities in the area, according to CLSA.
And more investment is on the way. In announcing job cuts last month, Bayer AG said it wanted to use the savings for the 'expansion of capacities in Asia,' including the addition of 2,500 jobs in emerging markets.
Pfizer opened a research facility in Shanghai five years ago and established a network of doctors and academics to give input on the clinical needs of patients there. The New York company saw an opportunity in an anti-inflammatory compound that showed promise for treating liver disease. The disease can follow infection with the hepatitis B virus, which is much more common in Asia than in the West. Some 70% to 90% of people in China and some other Asian countries are infected with hepatitis B by the age of 40, compared to fewer than 20% in North America and Western Europe, according to the World Health Organization.
Johnson & Johnson's collaboration with Tsinghua University -- one of the top universities in Beijing whose tree-lined campus is filled with gleaming research centers and surrounded by Chinese offices of U.S. technology giants Google and Microsoft -- illustrates a partnership approach to drug R&D. The goal of the project's early-stage laboratory work is to better understand diseases like hepatitis B, tuberculosis and bird flu, paving the way for new therapies.
Since 2008, J&J has been involved in another partnership with Tianjin Medical University to improve treatment of head, neck and other cancers prevalent in Asia.
Tianjin Medical University, about 80 miles southeast of Beijing, has about 2,000 inpatient cancer beds. It is collecting tumor tissues and blood cells from each patient. By collaborating with the university, J&J hopes to more quickly identify distinctive biomarkers, such as genes or proteins, that might signal which drugs would work best for what cancer patients, said William Hait, J&J's head of oncology.
J&J helped train local researchers on how to do detailed genetic and molecular work because they 'didn't have critical mass of people with these capabilities,' said Dr. Hait. The training has taken longer than expected, but the research projects are up and running, he said.
Bristol-Myers is taking yet a different approach -- by licensing to a Chinese firm the development of a compound that shows promise for treating gastric, esophageal and lung cancers.
The New York drug maker sold the compound's Chinese development and marketing rights after deciding a local company could do the work more efficiently. Under the terms, Simcere will run and fund the research through mid-stage human development.
Though this might mean giving up the short-term benefit of selling any resulting products in China, Bristol-Myers can draw long-term lessons from the experience, said Jeremy Levin, who oversees transactions at Bristol-Myers. 'We're learning from others in other countries,' he said.
All of the drugs targeting diseases prevalent in Asia remain years off. Yet, their development can pay immediate dividends by generating goodwill with Asian patients and governments impressed by the focus on local medical needs, said Sati Sian, general manager in China of IMS Health, a drug industry consultancy.
Companies may face some skepticism from patients, however.
Mr. Chi, a 48-year-old Beijing resident who asked to be identified only by his family name, said it is a positive that Western drug companies are trying to make more new medicines but he doesn't like their focus on treating diseases more common in Asian populations with the intention of selling them first to people in China. 'I would wonder why you [the company] don't start giving it to people in your country first,' said Mr. Chi, a building manager.
Mr. Chi, who was waiting to see a doctor Monday because he was suffering from an upset stomach, generally prefers traditional Chinese medicines for 'regulating' bodily processes, like problems with sleeping, because they are made of natural ingredients and have fewer side effects than Western medicines.
Shirley S. Wang / Jonathan D. Rockoff
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