Bayer extends Beijing factory to better fight disease

German life science company Bayer AG committed to improving health in China at the inaugurated ceremony of its Bayer Pharmaceuticals Product Supply Beijing Site extension program last week.

"We have witnessed a rising rate in chronic disease in China and see the need for our products to serve the Chinese market," said Johannes Dietsch, chief financial officer of Bayer AG.

"We aim to offer solutions for improving health conditions in China and will continue to improve the quality of our products to meet the increasing demands of Chinese customers."

Dietsch said the extension program of the company's Beijing site is not only important for Bayer's business strategies in China, but also for the wider sustainable growth of the company.

"For us, China is not only a big market, but also a place where we want to develop healthcare. With the rapid growth of the need for prescription medicine in China, we are very confident the newly extended factory in Beijing will keep providing safe, reliable and innovative products."

Statistics from the National Health and Family Planning Commission issued last year show that the death toll from chronic diseases reached 86.6 percent of total deaths in China in 2012.

The four most prevalent chronic diseases in China are cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory disease.

In 2012, 25.2 percent of residents over 18 years old had high blood pressure, while 9.7 percent had diabetes, according to the "2015 Report on Chinese Nutrition and Chronic Disease" released by the commission.

"These diseases can affect the function of the body and can sometimes be fatal.

"We need to know more about these diseases and learn how to prevent them effectively," said Sun Ningling, deputy director of the Heart Center at Peking University People's Hospital.

Xing Xiaoping, director of the endocrinology department of Peking Union Medical College Hospital said that many people experience complications from diabetes, but awareness and treatment rates of diabetes are less than one-third.

"I appeal to the whole of society to work together to improve the current situation," Xing said.

The Party's central leadership and the State Council, China's cabinet, released the "Healthy China 2030" blueprint in October, covering a broad range of issues from public health services, environment management and the medical industry, to food and drug safety.

According to the blueprint, the average life expectancy of Chinese people will rise to 79 by 2030, and premature deaths caused by chronic diseases will decrease by 30 percent compared with 2015.

Celina Chew, president of Bayer Group Greater China, said the blueprint is a very comprehensive policy that includes medicine, disease prevention, exercise, quality of life and nutrition. "It's something to which we can definitely contribute, because we pay attention not only to human health, but also to plant and animal health, all helping to build a better and more healthy society," she said.

Peter Rothwell, professor of neurology at the University of Oxford, who mainly studies the causes of stroke and stroke prevention, said that aspirin helps to prevent diseases such as high blood pressure, stroke, cancer and even depression.

"Platelets are crucial to fighting many diseases, including chronic diseases, infections and mental illnesses. The chemical components in aspirin are very effective in influencing the function of platelets," he said.

Rothwell worked with Bayer on a trial of healthy middle-aged people in the United States and Europe, to see whether aspirin still works for the prevention of chronic diseases since the most recent previous trial was undertaken 20 years ago.

Bayer was granted the patent for aspirin in 1899 and has been producing it for more than 100 years.

"In the UK, when people think of Bayer, they usually think of aspirin, because it's their best-known drug," Rothwell said.

Besides prescription medicines, Bayer sells consumer goods related to healthcare and is introducing integrated solutions to Chinese farmers to improve the quality and production of crops, Chew added.

(China Daily 11/25/2016 page7)