中國醫藥銷售增長繼續超歐美
Pharmaceuticals sales growth in China will continue to outstrip Europe and the US despite the economic slowdown on the mainland, downward pressure on drug prices and compliance challenges following the GlaxoSmithKline corruption scandal, according to the head of Swiss pharma group Novartis.
瑞士製藥集團諾華(Novartis)首席執行官江慕忠(Joe Jimenez)表示，中國醫藥銷售增速將繼續超過歐洲和美國，儘管中國經濟增速放緩、藥價面臨下調壓力，同時在葛蘭素史克(GSK)腐敗醜聞後面臨合規挑戰。
“China has the potential over the next 10 years to become a major force in global pharma,” Joe Jimenez, chief executive, told the Financial Times. He was speaking on the eve of the company’s opening of a $1bn global research and development campus in Shanghai — its third global facility alongside R&D centres in Basel and Cambridge, Massachusetts. “China’s going to become very important in R&D in this industry, not in the short term but over the long term,” he said.
江慕忠告訴英國《金融時報》：“未來10年，中國有可能成爲全球製藥行業的一支主要力量。”他是在諾華在上海投資10億美元興建的全球研發園區揭牌之前說這番話的，這是繼巴塞爾和馬塞諸塞州劍橋研發中心之後，諾華建設的第3個全球研發中心。他表示：“中國將在該行業研發領域變得非常重要，不僅短期如此，長期也是如此。”
The industry has seen a slowdown in China sales growth, falling from double to single digits, “but compare that to how the US or western Europe is growing at maybe 2 to 3 per cent,” he said.
中國藥品銷售增速出現放緩，從兩位數降至個位數，他表示，“但這仍然高於美國或西歐可能在2%至3%的增速。”
“Within 35 years there are going to be 200m more Chinese over the age of 65 than there are now . . . so there will be 340m people over the age of 65. That’s similar to the total population of the US,” he said.
他表示：“35年內，中國65歲以上人羣將比現在多出2億……因此65歲以上人羣將達到3.40億人。這與美國的總人口類似。”
Mr Jimenez’s comments show that although global drug groups face significant hurdles in China — including tougher rules for the pricing of branded generic drugs and a rise in compliance costs after GSK was fined Rmb3bn ($488m) in 2014 — the country remains an essential market for many of them.
江慕忠的言論表明，儘管全球製藥集團在中國面臨巨大障礙（包括更嚴格的品牌仿製藥定價規則以及在GSK於2014年被罰30億元人民幣（合4.88億美元）之後合規成本上升），但中國仍然是很多製藥集團不可或缺的市場。
China’s combination of a rapidly growing middle class and a large ageing population almost guarantees drug demand for years to come, analysts say.
分析師們表示，中國迅速壯大的中產階層以及龐大的老齡化人口幾乎保證了未來多年的藥品需求。
But companies are being squeezed as China tries to extract greater value from its $150bn drugs bill and reform a hospital system whose finances are dependent on pushing pills.
但隨着中國試圖從1500億美元的藥品支出中獲得更多價值，同時改革在資金上依賴推銷藥品的醫院體系，製藥公司的利潤可能會受到擠壓。
