A pill Made in China -- The leap from generic drugs to independent innovation



The speed and number of COVID-19 vaccine research and development has always been the first in the world, with nearly 1.2 billion doses reported across the country. China has passed the once-in-a-century "big test" on the global COVID-19 epidemic.

As a "national team" in drug research and development, the novel coronavirus vaccine developed by Sinopharm Group was included in the emergency use list by the World Health Organization on May 7, becoming the first non-Western vaccine on the list, and the first time that China's vaccine against infectious diseases has been authorized by the WHO for emergency use.

Independence, self-reliance

On the centenary of the founding of the Party, a "coating machine" shaped like a roller was exhibited at Sinopsin Group, quietly telling the history of the Chinese people's fight against infectious diseases.

The machine was used to produce "sugar pills" for the polio vaccine. In the 1950s, polio outbreaks spread across the country, mostly among children, who could lose their legs, legs and arms overnight. If the inflammation occurs in the brain, the child is more likely to die.

At that time, Gu Fangzhou, who was more than 30 years old, was entrusted with the task of polio research.

"Science and technology in the world, in the end, have to be self-reliant." Dozens of kilometers outside the city of Kunming, Gu Fangzhou led people to dig holes, build houses, and independently develop vaccines. In the 1960s, sugar pill vaccines produced by "coating machines" began to be supplied on a large scale across the country.

Since 1994, there have been no cases of polio caused by local wild viruses in China, and "sugar pills" have become the "sweet" memory of childhood for several generations of Chinese people.

Safeguarding people's health has been the constant pursuit of the CPC over the past century. During the hard Revolutionary War years, medicine was scarce in Xiaojing Red Army Hospital in Jinggang Mountain. Medical staff collected Chinese herbs and gave them to the wounded and sick after suffering. In Qiongya, Hainan, the Red Army soldiers found a medicinal plant half as tall as a man, which could both satisfy the stomach and cure the disease, and called it "revolutionary dish".

At the beginning of 2020, in the face of the sudden COVID-19 epidemic, China put people first and life first. In February of that year, China set up a special team for vaccine research and development, and deployed multiple technical routes to advance in tandem.

From the launch of the COVID-19 vaccine project to the first clinical study in the world, it took only two months; It took only four months to launch the first emergency use of vaccines in China's history. It took only 5 months to carry out the first overseas phase III clinical trial of vaccine in China's history. It took only 11 months to obtain conditional listing approval.

At present, while continuously building domestic immunity barriers, China has included two vaccines of Sinopsin and Sinovac on the WHO emergency use list, and four vaccines on the list of COVID-19 vaccine products available for export, contributing China's strength to the building of a community of human health.

The original new drug enters the harvest period

Not only are there "national teams", but more and more pharmaceutical companies are also achieving results at the forefront of innovation.

In late June, the combined use of Dabershu and Dayutong was approved for market, becoming the world's first PD-1 immunotherapy approved for liver cancer patients. The two drugs developed by Xinda Biological are the results of the major science and technology project of "Major New Drug creation".

After the founding of New China, our country gradually has an independent industrial system, and the situation of lack of medicine has been alleviated. By the turn of the century, China's pharmaceutical industry was once one of the fastest growing industries in the national economy, but the products were mostly generic drugs and lacked patent protection.

In 2008, as part of China's medium - and long-term scientific and technological development plan, multi-departments implemented a major scientific and technological project of "major new drug creation" to promote the development of new drugs in China from imitation to creation.

In 2011, China's first small molecule targeted anti-cancer drug ectinib hydrochloride with fully independent intellectual property rights was born in Zhejiang, and its listing prompted the price of foreign patented drugs in China by more than 50%.

During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, Shanghai alone cultivated more than one-fifth of the country's first-class innovative drugs. In 2020, the scale of the biomedical industry in Shanghai Pudong has exceeded 80 billion yuan, and a total of 11 first-class new drugs have been listed.

"In order to allow the majority of patients to use China's good drugs as soon as possible, the scientific research team has been continuously researching drug innovation for more than ten years or even decades, and has only achieved breakthrough results." After ten years of grinding a sword, with the initial completion of the national drug innovation technology system, the reform of the drug evaluation and approval system continues to deepen, and original new drugs are entering the harvest period.

I can't afford a better medicine

If there are good medicines, the key is to make them available and affordable to the people. Putting the people first and seeking happiness for the Chinese people has never changed the original aspiration of the Communist Party of China.

On June 23, the fifth batch of state-organized drug centralized procurement was opened in Shanghai, with an average price reduction of 56% for 251 products to be selected, which is the largest scale of state-organized drug centralized procurement.

The regular and institutionalized implementation of national drug collection has transformed the advantages of the system into management efficiency, and effectively reduced the burden on patients. Hu Yinglian, a professor at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee (Chinese Academy of Governance), believes that drug governance has changed from being centered on medical treatment in the past to being centered on people's health, with more emphasis on drug quality safety and promoting innovation.

Adhere to the "four aspects" of scientific and technological innovation, including "facing people's life and health". Starting from the urgent and long-term needs of the country, a number of key core technologies in the fields of drugs, medical devices, medical equipment, vaccines and other fields are speeding up breakthroughs.

Looking forward to the "14th Five-Year Plan", it has become a consensus to build a healthy China, deepen the reform of the medical and health system, and lead the high-quality development of the medical field with innovation. The state will also build a TCM science and technology support platform, reform and improve the TCM review and approval mechanism, and promote the development and protection of new TCM drugs and industrial development.