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The State of China Biotech – 2009 – Technology Development

publication date: Feb 8, 2009
 | 
author/source: Greg B. Scott, Executive Editor and Richard Daverman, PhD

Introduction

Because of the worldwide economic distress, business activity is shrinking almost universally, though some individual areas are demonstrating relative strength – and we think the life science industry in China is one of those areas. In this series of articles, ChinaBio® presents proprietary data developed by its own team of researchers that explains why we remain cautiously optimistic.

In an earlier article (see story), we presented an overview of the current state of China life science. Here, we make our initial foray into the data, presenting original research on the life science patents that have been filed in China since 2000. Later articles, which will be published on a regular basis, will cover clinical trial activity, investments in life science and deal making.

 

Technology Development

The discussion about China’s research activity often centers on whether China's domestic drug researchers are producing novel technology or just more “me too” products. We decided to investigate novel molecules as a way of definitively answering this question. ChinaBio® researchers screened over 120,000 patents filed and published between 2000 and 2008, and they further analyzed 6,000 patents in detail. We determined that China is, in fact, developing new molecular entities, and at a more rapid rate than might be expected.

We identified over 1,800 novel molecule patents published between 2000 and 2008, beginning with only 34 in 2000, accelerating to 380 in 2006, the last year for which we would expect to have complete data, given the delay from filing to publishing. This represents an astounding 10-fold increase in patent publication rates for novel molecules in just six years. And the trend itself appears to be accelerating, as the 2005-2006 increase was 43%, up from 30% for 2004-2005.

So far, we know that another 310 molecules were registered in 2007 and 172 in 2008. That, as we have said before, represents only a portion of the total because of the delay between filing and publishing patent data, but this would appear to substantiate that the trend is continuing.

 

 New Molecule Patents 2000-2008

 

An analysis of the data shows that China has a suprisingly strong capability in large molecules. 49% of the novel molecule patents were for biologics. Not as surprising, 55% of the large molecule patents came from Beijing and Shanghai, each contributing almost the same number of large molecule patents at 249 and 244 respectively. But Shanghai was stronger in small molecules, making it the #1 contributor, with 27% of the total patents.

Other regions with at least 100 patents published in the period were Guangdong (Guangzhou), Jiangsu (Suzhou), Zhejiang (Hangzhou). Guangdong was strongest in large molecules, while Jiangsu and Zhejiang were stronger in small molecules. Each of these regions has a reasonably strong biotech industry base, and one or more recognized universities and/or institutes.

Universities and institutes are responsible for a much larger portion of new molecule development than would be expected in the US, generating 68% of the patents during the period. By contrast, individual companies contributed only a relatively small 283 patents (15%).

Cancer is a major issue in China, especially lung cancer (80% of the male population smokes) and liver cancer (a genetic pre-disposition). Hepatitis B and HIV are also prevalent, making infectious disease a major focus. The distribution of patents parallels the medical need, with oncology representing by far the largest portion (42%), followed by infectious disease (16%), cardio/cerebral vascular (8%) and metabolic disease, including diabetes (8%).

 Summary

As a result of this research, ChinaBio® has shown that there is, in fact, strong new technology development in China, and as a result we now have a very complete database of novel molecules that can be used to identify in-licensing opportunities in China.

Editor’s note: Research for this article was performed by our Shanghai-based ChinaBio® research team -- Dr. Don Qiu, Mei Guan, and Alex Wang.

 Disclosure: none.


 

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