Sihuan Pharma Opens Up R&D Shop in the San Francisco Bay Area

Sihuan Pharma Opens Up R&D Shop in the San Francisco Bay Area August 15, 2017
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

Sihuan Pharmaceutical Holdings Group Co., headquartered in Beijing, China, announced it plans to open its U.S. research-and-development center in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Founded in 2001, Sihuan Pharmaceutical is a leading Chinese prescription drug company, and has the largest cardio-cerebral vascular drug franchise in the country’s market. It has drugs in five medical therapeutic areas in China, including cardio-cerebral vascular, central nervous system, metabolism, oncology and anti-infectives. The company has a network of over 3,000 distributors that cover almost 10,000 hospitals and healthcare institutions in China.

The company also has a strong R&D program made up of over 400 staffers that focuses on innovative drugs and first-to-market generic drugs. Its R&D spend ranges from about 6 percent to 10 percent of sales. The company has 80 new drugs under development.

On June 22, the company announced that one of its subsidiaries, Sun Moral International had signed a joint venture with Austria-based CROMA-Pharma GmbH. The joint venture company will be SunCro Aesthetic & Cosmetic International Co. and will focus on minimally-invasive aesthetic products. Sihuan holds 74.9 percent of the joint venture and CROMA-Pharma holds 25.1 percent. Sihuan will provide multi-channel distribution and marketing in Mainland China. CROMA-Pharma will provide expertise in intellectual property and product licensing.

In 2016, the company reported gross profits of 3.186 billion RMB (renminbi, or yuan), or about $447.9 million (U.S.).

“Confronted with unfavorable policies and business environment, Sihuan Pharmaceutical consolidated its business foundation and maintained steady operations by responsively adjusting and effectively implementing its marketing strategies,” said Che Fengsheng, company chairman, in a statement. “In addition to a gradual recovery in sales, the Company achieved impressive progress in new drug research and development during the Year. Not only did innovative patent drug R&D proceed efficiently, the pace of generic drugs R&D also accelerated. While the manufacturing management and quality control further improved, production costs were controlled effectively. Moreover, Sihuan Pharmaceutical’s comprehensive administration gained remarkable progress and improvement, with its internal control over all operational activities becoming stricture and more regulated. All of the Company’s operational goals were accomplished during the Year.”

Although the company has not indicated exactly where in the Bay Area it will set up shop, it did say in a statement, that, “The establishment of Sihuan Pharmaceutical’s U.S. R&D Centre is an important step on the road to the Group’s global strategic planning. As a center of global biomedical technology, the San Francisco Bay Area has a concentration of top talent and advanced concept for innovative drug R&D. The Center will make full use of local talent and contract research organizations, and primarily focus on the development of first-in-class immuno-oncology drugs, including small molecule drugs and large molecule biological drugs such as antibodies and fusion protein drugs. All the researchers and consultants of the Center are senior scientists with extensive experiences in innovative drug R&D. There are multiple projects under development currently.”

Sihuan also indicates that its U.S. activities will have at least two approaches. One is, once preclinical research is completed in the U.S., it will work with its R&D platforms in China where sample production and clinical development will be handled. But it also indicates that it will be flexible in its R&D strategy based on its interactions with government policies, regulations and the market. It plans to work internationally when it begins clinical trials and the registration process, working in both the U.S. and China simultaneously. It also plans to accelerate marketing of products in China.

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