(Yicai Global) March 27 -- AstraZeneca's research and development investment in China is expected to triple this year from 2020 as the British pharmaceutical giant prepares to bring a number of innovative drugs to the Chinese and global markets.

AstraZeneca is tripling its R&D investment in China and is aiming to introduce at least 15 innovative drugs to the Chinese market by 2030, said He Jing, SVP, Head of the firm’s R&D Center in the country.

AstraZeneca has been hiking its investment in China R&D since the London-based firm first entered China 30 years ago, Susan Galbraith, global executive vice president of oncology R&D, told Yicai Global at the second R&D China Science Day last week.

AstraZeneca’s R&D hub in China is expected to have a headcount of 900 by year-end, Galbraith said at the event, which has a special focus on cancer. “The quality of scientists and the level of talent here is rapidly increasing.”

China's huge population offers not only a large talent pool but also a substantial number of oncology patients, such as lung, liver and gastric cancer. Lung cancer is the biggest cause of deaths by cancer in the country.

AstraZeneca’s key R&D pipelines in China are 100 percent in parallel with those worldwide and early-stage development projects account for 20% of the R&D China pipeline, said He. China has begun to lead global R&D in areas like gastric cancer and liver cancer, which are highly prevalent in the country.

AstraZeneca is actively collaborating with local partners, such as Hong Kong-based HutchMed, with whom it developed the oncology drug Savolitinib. The treatment was approved to go to market in China in 2021 and is under review in other parts of the world. AstraZeneca is also teaming up with Shanghai’s Cellular Biomedicine Group to promote cell therapy.

The Cambridge-based pharma giant will focus on translational medicine, which helps ensure that medical findings in the lab make their way to the patient, the sensitivities and resistance of the treatment,and how to work with innovation, said Galbraith.

AstraZeneca introduced CoSolve, which is an open forum where start-ups and early stage biotechs can bring innovative ideas which can be rapidly translated into tangible solutions to real-life research challenges, into China at the first R&D China Science Day last year. Nine challenges were presented and 47 proposals submitted. The scientific novelty of some of the finalists gets us thinking how to solve these challenges, said Galbraith.

“We are going to continue to expand both the R&D capability within AstraZeneca, and also expand our collaboration with the ecosystem that is being built here in China,“ said Galbraith. “This is also an opportunity for China to further accelerate and to become an important source of innovation for the pharmaceutical industry, as the whole global economy recovers from the pandemic.”

Editor: Kim Taylor