CHINA HEALTH SCIENCES NEWSLETTER
Vol. 3 , No.22 - September 11, 2002
TOPICS THIS ISSUE:
- China may Break AIDS Drug Patents if Talks with Foreign Firms Fail
- China's Aids Time Bomb: 1 Million Sufferers and Ticking
- TCM Industry Receives 6.4 Billion Yuan Investment
- Performance of China's Pharmaceutical Industry Improves in 2002
- WHO Cautions Rising Health Care Costs in Asia
China may Break AIDS Drug Patents if Talks with Foreign Firms Fail
A top Chinese government health official recently stated that China might be forced to break patents on western AIDS drugs if talks with foreign pharmaceutical companies over cutting prices do not succeed by early next year.
China has been in talks for months with pharmaceutical giants GlaxoSmithkline PLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co and Merck Co Inc., which already sell AIDS drugs in the country.
Despite China's desire to respect foreign pharmaceutical patents, an agreement must be reached within the next few months, said Dr. Qi Xiaoqiu, head of the Department of Disease Control of the Ministry of Health. "(Otherwise) we will have to take the other choice," he told a briefing in Beijing. "We cannot afford to wait any longer." China may turn to international bodies such as the UNAIDS to mandate compulsory licensing and access of Aids drugs for Chinese patients he said.
With China currently having approximately one million people infected with the HIV virus, this figure that could increase ten-fold by the end of the decade if nothing is done to stop the epidemic, according to Qi.
Chinese negotiators hope to persuade the companies to cut prices beyond reductions of up to 80% that they have already made this year.
"We believe that any government when facing a dilemma between profit, and the life and health of its people, should choose to protect the lives and health of its people," Qi said.
Several countries including Brazil and South Africa have used a provision under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules that effectively allows members to produce cheap generic AIDS drugs and break the patents of foreign drugs companies.
China pledged ten years ago to respect intellectual property rights in the pharmaceutical industry. Following China's admission into the WTO last year, many believe that the pharmaceutical intellectual property rights now in question will ultimately be upheld by the government as it is now more concerned about protecting these rights and its image abroad as a foreign investment Mecca.
(Source: Agence France Presse)
China's Aids Time Bomb: 1 Million Sufferers and Ticking
A top Chinese government health official recently stated China is close to facing an Aids epidemic, with the latest figures showing the country has at least one million HIV and Aids sufferers.
Although still below the global epidemic standard, the sheer number of sufferers has given authorities cause for concern with the increase of 16.7% in Aids cases for the first six months of this year over the same period last year.
China says its statistics on HIV and Aids sufferers have been adjusted upwards to account for under-reporting of the actual number of reported HIV and Aids cases, from 30,000 published cases to one million. The number of actual reported cases of full-blown Aids stands at 1,900, but the number of published cases is 200,000.
Dr Qi Xiaoqiu, director-general of the Health Ministry's disease control department, said that while China's proportion of HIV and Aids sufferers was still below the international 'epidemic' standard, the absolute number was 'very large'. They account for 0.08% of the country's 1.3 billion population, far below the international level of 0.2% to be considered a disease epidemic.
But Dr Qi said: 'Even if the percentage is low, the problem is becoming very serious. It's on the verge of becoming an epidemic.'
Disease transmission differs between China's various regions, ranging from intravenous drug use in the north-west and south-west, those who sold their blood to illegal plasma centers, which used unsterilised needles in the central region and unprotected sex - and quite often paid sex in the most prosperous cities, as the main transmission mode.
China accounts for 70% of AIDS sufferers in the Western Pacific region, in Asia it ranks fourth and, worldwide, it stands at 17th place.
Nonetheless, help is on the way for sufferers, with the first batch of a China-made and lower-priced cocktail drug being used in Henan, he revealed.
The patent for Zidovudine, or AZT, has expired and this has allowed local pharmaceutical firms to produce the drug, reducing the annual treatment costs from RMB 130,000 (US $28,000) to just RMB 30,000.
(Source: The Straits Times (Singapore))
TCM Industry Receives 6.4 Billion Yuan Investment
China will invest RMB 6.4 billion in the implementation of a project on "innovative drugs and modernization of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)" in a bid to shift from imitation to innovation, combine imitation with innovation, and upgrade TCM modernization standards.
China's TCM products only account for 35% of the international galenic pharmacy (preparations containing one or several organic ingredients, as contrasted with pure chemical substances) market. In 2000, the value of "foreign TCM" imported by China exceeded its export of patent TCM.
The project will focus on the study of key technologies including the screening of new drugs, evaluation of drug-effects before clinic practice and its safety, and the quality of biotech products and examination. It is hoped that the project will develop a number of innovative drugs with independent intellectual property rights, traditional Chinese medicine and non-patent varieties to ensure the smooth transition and steady development of the pharmaceutical industry in China after China's entry into the WTO.
The new system is anticipated to help supplement and unify scientific research forces of different departments, localities, research institutes, higher learning institutions and enterprises.
(Source: Xinhua)
Performance of China's Pharmaceutical Industry Improves in 2002
China's pharmaceutical industry has maintained rapid growth, with a resulting rise in returns for this year.
The integrated business cycle index of China's pharmaceutical industry is expected to reach 0.11 in the third quarter based on the sound development in the second quarter. The performance of enterprises' sales income and sales profits is estimated at 0.32 and 0.21 respectively in the third quarter, up at least 0.12 over the second quarter.
According to a survey of 1,200 pharmaceutical enterprises conducted by the State Economic and Trade Commission and the National Bureau of Statistics, 29.7% of enterprises saw a better microeconomic environment in the second quarter than in the first, 56.7% said there was no change, and 13.6% believed it was worse.
As to the economic performance of enterprises in the first quarter and the second quarter, 39.1% agreed that there was improvement, 46.8% said there was no change, and 14.1% believed it was getting harder.
The economic performance of enterprises in the second quarter of this year reached 0.25, up from 0.02 in the first quarter, while investment in fixed assets also continued to rise in the second quarter.
(Source: Asia Pulse)
WHO Cautions Rising Health Care Costs in Asia
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the cost of health care in Asia is soaring, with poor families in some countries spending up to 30% of their household incomes on this necessity.
"There is a general concern that health costs are increasing rapidly and resources are not being used efficiently and effectively," says Mr. Shigeru Omi, regional director for the WHO Western Pacific office.
Mr. Omi said in developing countries, the cost of health care is heavier do to a lack of a social safety net and that "in such countries the current financing structure often does not provide adequate financial protection through pre-payment mechanisms such as health insurance, which means all medical costs are paid for privately".
Omi also cited poor management of medical facilities and services in some countries as a contributing factor to "unnecessarily high costs of basic health services."
Minor surgery, hi-tech diagnostic services and pharmaceuticals have become the main source of hospital revenue in Cambodia, China, Laos, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Medical experts say that the rapid pace of privatization in Asia also contributed to the high health care costs. Private groups were allowed to enter the crucial health sector in the region after it was discovered that state resources were not sufficient to maintain health systems, meet increased demand, and improve quality of care. Omi said while privatization boosted efficiency in the health care sector, it also led to "profit-making, sometimes unfortunately, at the expense of the quality of services."
"That is why the government's supervision, monitoring, quality assurance role in the health sector is so important and to ensure that health services meet national standards," he said.
Mr. Omni believes that knowledge of how health services are financed is "critically important if meaningful health sector reforms are to be implemented" in the region.
Omi said to cope with rising health care costs in the region, the WHO would provide technical support to countries to strengthen their "pre-payment mechanisms" through social health insurance. "A key component of this will be reducing the financial burden of individual households caused by out-of-pocket payments," he said.
(Source: Agence France Presse)
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