EXCERPTS: AstraZeneca Plc is fleshing out plans for a manufacturing network that will independently supply drugs to major markets as the U.S. pushes to reduce the pharma industry’s reliance on China.
The UK drugmaker will make the same medicine at different facilities to serve various markets separately, Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot said in an interview from the sidelines of the Boao Forum for Asia.
The individualized approach will take place regardless of where a drug originated, according to Soriot.
“Those will be very segmented activities,” he said. “The issues of invention, development and manufacturing are disconnected.”
The proposed U.S. bill names WuXi AppTec Co. and Wuxi Biologics, among the biggest research, development and manufacturing companies in the world, making them major casualties in the effort to cut Chinese companies out of drug supply chains. The Biosecure Act is expected to affect the broader pharmaceutical industry as well, as the WuXi businesses provide essential services for most of the world’s top drugmakers, including Astra.
Astra recently announced a $475 million new production facility in the eastern city of Wuxi, saying it will make innovative medicines for China and other markets. Construction is also underway for a $700 million manufacturing site in the coastal city Qingdao for respiratory medicines.
Soriot also announced a partnership with a subsidiary of Chinese vaccine maker Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products Co. in Beijing on Tuesday. The initiative is targeted at developing and manufacturing vaccines for the local population, he said.
Separating manufacturing along geopolitical fault lines hasn’t stopped Astra from scouting for promising drug candidates in China. The company inked seven deals worth as much as $6 billion with local companies last year to jointly develop drug candidates for diseases from obesity to cancer.
The acquisition of Shanghai-based Gracell Biotechnologies Inc. will play an important role in how the company develops new cell therapies in the future, Soriot said. At the same time, Astra also invested in a manufacturing site in Maryland to make cell therapies.
COMMENT: As anticipated. Others will follow. Welcome to a brave new (bifurcated) world.
I wonder who gets to serve booming Southeast Asia?