Philippines urged not to prevent further unrest in the South China Sea

Certain individuals in the Philippines should stop stirring up trouble and staging provocations in the South China Sea, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday.

Lin made the statement in response to the Philippine side's irresponsible remarks about China on the South China Sea issue.

“Who is really constantly violating China's rights and provoking in the South China Sea? Who is sending troops from outside the region to undermine regional peace and stability? All countries in the region are aware of this. No one can accuse China of undermining peace. We call on certain individuals in the Philippines to deal with the root cause of the problem, stop stirring up trouble and staging provocations that undermine regional peace, and stop playing these pathetic farces of twisting facts and shifting blame,” Lin said.

Philippines urged not to prevent further unrest in the South China Sea

According to Leon Wang, executive vice president of pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, China's pharmaceutical industry is poised for exponential growth as innovations and drug pricing reforms have driven market expansion.

Wang made the remarks during an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) on the sidelines of the fifth Qingdao Multinationals Summit, which took place from Tuesday to Thursday.

China's large population, higher life expectancy and drug pricing reforms have created favorable conditions to make the country the world's largest pharmaceutical market, Wang said.

“I think China is possibly the largest pharmaceutical market in the world. Of course [in terms of] Prices are much higher in the US, Europe and Japan are a little bit behind, and China is lower in terms of price. But the population has a huge potential of unmet medical needs. And the increasing need and longer life expectancy and all of these things create a huge opportunity for a company like AstraZeneca, which now holds the leading position among multinational pharmaceutical companies in China. And also in the supply chain area, millions of engineers graduate from university every year, right? And they enter the workforce and work day and night and they work much harder. So I can just see that during COVID-19, the supply chain in China was never interrupted and people were sleeping in the factory, in the company, making sure goods were manufactured and [that there is] sustained supply in the market,” Wang said.

Wang also pointed out that China is emerging as a key center for pharmaceutical manufacturing, innovation and approval, making it a dominant player in the global supply chain.

“So we made number one [manufacturing] factory in Wuxi about 20 years ago. Ten years ago we built the second factory in Taizhou [City]”And two or three years ago, we started thinking about opening our third production site in Qingdao. And this year we decided to open the fourth production site in Wuxi,” Wang said.

“I think there's more to come. I think China is going to be critical to the global supply chain to produce high-quality drugs at low cost for all people. And secondly, new drugs are being approved much faster than they used to be, which puts China a little behind the US and Europe. And we also see that sometimes we can get a new drug approved before the US, so a lot of first-rate new drugs are invented in China, they get approved before the rest of the world, right? So we're already seeing that, [and]we're going to see more of that. The regulatory environment has definitely improved in the last five, 10 years. In the future, 30 to 40 percent of new drugs approved worldwide will come from China, so China becomes a source of innovation first, right? Rather than just being a source of production and a source of consumption,” he said.

To become a truly global pharmaceutical leader, it is critical for AstraZeneca to make the most of China's wealth of medical data and use artificial intelligence, Wang said.

“As a multinational company, we believe that we need to be good and challenge ourselves to connect with China's innovation, combine western and eastern innovation and become a truly global company. And that we can leverage big data, including with your genetic sequencing information and also your patient records and visits. So all of that diagnostic data, pathology records, so all of those things combined will create a huge wealth of big data. So I think China is going to be a leader in digital and big data and artificial intelligence to help patients find the best therapy,” he said.

Industry insider: China’s pharmaceutical industry faces exponential growth