Sanofi eyes boost to building healthcare ecosystems at CIIE

Participation in the ongoing China International Import Expo (CIIE) is intended to showcase not only the company's innovation in products but also that in propelling the establishment of ecosystems in the country's healthcare with stakeholders from different aspects, said a senior executive from French pharmaceutical company Sanofi.

In addition to continuing to leverage the CIIE platform to bring in innovative therapies to the China market faster, the company will also be committed to innovating in helping build such ecosystems in different disease areas and ultimately helping patients live better, said Burkon Wang, general manager of Sanofi Specialty Care China, during an exclusive interview with China Daily on Tuesday.

"We'll try to involve different sectors, including physicians, digital and innovation partners, and the government to look for affordability, in such ecosystems in order to release the potential that will help and benefit patients," he said.

Launching a cutting-edge drug fast for Chinese patients is not enough, and instead the overall treatment and diagnosis capability in the ecosystem will become a focus and what the company starts working on with partners early on rather than after a product launches, Wang said.

With such ecosystems, physicians from the top medical centers as well as those lower down shall be capable of diagnosing a certain disease and know how to treat it. Such ecosystems will also help patients with better disease education, find the right doctors, and get better medical treatment options, he said.

Sanofi, an exhibitor at CIIE for three consecutive years since the inaugural edition in 2018, will share some of its work going on with its partners from various fields. For example, there will be a cooperation memorandum signing regarding the ecosystem for atopic dermatitis (AD), a common immunoinflammatory disease that seriously affects the health and living quality of millions of sufferers in the country.

A product from the company, the world's first targeted biological agent to treat moderate to severe AD in adults that made its China debut during CIIE last year, will be highlighted for a second time this year.

The injection, which has been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration to treat moderate to severe AD among teenagers between 12 and 17 and minors between 6 and 11 in November last year and May respectively, will make its Asia debut with the indication for individuals in these age brackets.

Experts said that morbidity of allergies relating to type 2 mediated diseases has been increasing, especially among children, over the past two decades.

Regarding AD, experts said that it is not only a health problem on skin but also triggers difficulty in sleep and the confidence to go to school and work and interact with society. Moreover, the disease may lead to complications, including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

A report released in August by the China Association of Health Promotion and Education and Sanofi, which surveyed more than 1,300 moderate to severe AD patients in the country, showed that more than 60 percent of them suffered from unbearable itching, and over half of them suffered from interruption in sleep owing to itching almost every night.

"The earlier to treat, the earlier patients can prevent some of those other things from happening. And this therapy helps patients not only in the short term but also in the long run," said Wang.