Roche Pharmaceuticals to showcase innovative treatments at CIIE

Global pharmaceutical and diagnostic giant Roche will showcase its latest innovative therapies not launched in China market yet at the upcoming second China International Import Expo (CIIE), demonstrating its commitment to accelerate bringing new medical solutions to answer to patients' unmet needs in the country, the world's second-largest pharmaceuticals market currently.

At least three innovative therapies, including a form of immunotherapy for hepatic cellular cancer (HCC) that the company hopes will soon make its world debut, are expected to be key attractions in the enterprise's 700-square-meter booth during the expo. The booth itself is one of the largest in the medical equipment and healthcare products hall, Hong Chow, CEO of Roche Pharmaceuticals China, said during an exclusive interview with China Daily ahead of CIIE, which will open on Tuesday.

The immunotherapy just successfully completed its phase III global clinical trial in HCC in late October and the company is making new drug application in the United States, Europe and China simultaneously, Chow said.

"We sincerely hope that the new drug can be launched in China as the world's first, because half of the world's 750,000 HCC patients every year are actually in China, and most of them are in a late-stage when being diagnosed, so they survive an average of less than a year after diagnosis," she said.

The other two drugs are the world's first antibody-drug conjugates proven to significantly reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence and the first novel proposed mechanism to treat influenza approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in nearly two decades.

Aside from the Innovative Products Exhibition, the Switzerland-based multinational will sign a strategic collaboration with the Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone in Hainan province during the CIIE, to introduce a series of innovative drugs in the zone.

"Roche always puts patients first and spares no effort to develop innovative drugs and allow patients to have access to them as early as possible. We hope to collaborate with the country's pilot policies and mechanisms, including such a medical tourism pilot zone, to allow some patients to access the new therapies – lifesavers in many cases - in advance," said Chow.

The design of Roche's booth focuses on its innovative approach to personalized healthcare as well as its integrated medical solutions and cutting-edge technologies, attesting to the company's aspiration of "doing now what patients need next".

"Roche leverages high-value data to deliver personalized healthcare and the desired therapeutic results for specific patient groups, ensuring the right treatment for the right patient at the right time," Chow said.

As one of the first companies to confirm participation in the inaugural CIIE last year, one highlight for the company during last year's expo was the market launch of an innovative drug treating lung cancer, the most common cancer type in China.

"Within the company, we nicknamed the drug 'CIIE baby' as it was actually launched during the first CIIE, and it was an epitome of China's continuous reform and opening-up to the world and the country's accelerated approval for innovative drugs," said Chow.

The Chinese approval of the drug came just nine months after approval by the US FDA, and it took only 46 days from approval to launch in China, all for the benefit of Chinese patients, she said.

"It showed that China has caught up with the pace of drug approvals in Europe and the US," she said, adding that previously it took at least five years for an imported innovative drug to enter China after obtaining approval in Europe and the US.

In October, the National Health Commission announced that the five-year survival rate among cancer patients rose from 30.9 percent to 40.5 percent over the past decade. The Healthy China 2030 Initiative aimed to elevate the ratio to roughly 46 percent.

"Roche has been a major player in oncology therapies and promoted its medicines to be included in the National Reimbursement Drug List to boost patient accessibility, and I'm proud that Roche is contributing to that improvement," she said.

Talking of CIIE, Chow said that its most important meaning is that it has given a signal to the whole world that China has shifted from expo- to import-oriented market need, revealing people's elevated living standard and yearning for innovative products and technologies.

"This benefits China's status on the world stage and the position of the Chinese market in every multinational company's global development layout," she said.