In January in the cherry blossom country, it is already the depth of winter.
In a luxurious office at Takeda Pharmaceutical's headquarters in Daban City, Chairman Takeda Kazuhisa stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass window, looking at the night in the distance, frowning in thought.
Takeda Pharmaceutical is Asia's number one pharmaceutical giant and one of the top ten pharmaceutical giants in the world. Things that can make him think deeply are obviously not simple.
Three years ago, Takeda Pharmaceuticals acquired Shire, a rare disease pharmaceutical giant in bull country, through a standard small-fish-big-fish merger. The acquisition amount was as high as US$65.9 billion, which was almost the combined revenue of the two companies. 2 times together.
This merger made Takeda seem to be cheating, and its value has been rising. Not only has it jumped into the top ten global pharmaceuticals, its sales in the rare disease sector have surpassed Biogen, becoming the first in the rare disease track, and it has also lifted the patent cliff crisis. , and more importantly, the transformation from chemical drugs to biopharmaceuticals has been achieved.
At the same time, this merger also saddled Takeda with a huge debt of more than US$30 billion.
Since then, Takeda Pharmaceutical has embarked on the path of repaying its debts.
The company announced a non-core asset divestment plan worth US$10 billion and sold 21 non-core assets within 2 years, including its old headquarters.
Through a series of sell-offs that seemed to outsiders to be a heroic act, Takeda's debt reduction actions were carried out steadily and quickly. It quickly gained a foothold, achieved the goal of doubling profits, and its revenue also increased significantly.
Takeda Pharmaceutical's divestiture of mature products is a wise move. It not only reduces debt, but also retains sufficient funds for the research and development of core products, allowing the company to successively strike hard in the rare disease track and launch several products. Orphan drugs.
However, other multinational giants are also optimistic about this track. Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Roche, etc. continue to follow suit and launch high-value mergers and acquisitions of rare disease pharmaceutical companies.
Suddenly, all the heroes in the field of rare medicines came together to fight each other.
At this time, the Chinese pharmaceutical giant Sanqing also entered the game with a high profile and released two breakthrough rare disease genetic drugs, especially the SMA genetic drug, which defeated the sky-high-priced orphan drugs of Novartis and Roche and was completely defeated.
Sanqing also announced that it will continue to develop genetic drugs for rare diseases and even made a list.
This formation couldn't help but make Takeda Kazuya feel bad, as if he was facing a formidable enemy.
You must know that there are more than 7,000 rare diseases, with more than 300 million patients worldwide. It is a completely untapped blue ocean. It is not a big problem for a few more pharmaceutical companies to enter the market, and it will not constitute much competition.
But Sanqing, a pharmaceutical company, is quite special and different from other pharmaceutical companies.
It does not, like most pharmaceutical companies, develop drugs to relieve rare diseases and force patients to take the drugs for life to maximize profits.
Instead, they immediately cut down their efforts and developed genetic drugs as soon as possible, which directly cured the patients and completely eliminated the root cause of rare diseases.
It is simply a lack of martial ethics and a lack of reason!
Most pharmaceutical companies actually have a tacit understanding. They are often more willing to develop drugs for chronic diseases and let patients continue to take them. In this way, patients who continue to take the drugs can often contribute profits to pharmaceutical companies for ten, twenty years, or even their entire lives.
Such drugs are the favorites of pharmaceutical companies.
One of the most obvious examples is that pharmaceutical companies hate the development of antibiotics, because after a patient becomes ill, he or she will be cured after taking a few doses, and unless they relapse, they no longer need to take the medicine.
Then pharmaceutical companies will not be able to continue to make profits from patients, so they will have little incentive to continue to develop new drugs.
The same is true for common vaccine drugs. Once you take one shot, you don’t need to take another shot. It’s a one-and-done deal. It’s strange that pharmaceutical companies like it.
But drugs for rare diseases are different. Patients have been diagnosed with the disease since childhood and have been taking medicine since childhood. They can continue to take it until they die.
As long as a drug is developed and sold at a high price, it can continue to be sold at a high price. It is simply the perfect drug in the eyes of pharmaceutical companies.
However, this tacit understanding was immediately broken by Sanqing.
When Sanqing took action, it did not develop drugs to alleviate the disease and extract long-term profits, but directly cured all patients.
Not only did it take away the market from other pharmaceutical companies, it also reduced the dimensionality and directly destroyed the entire market with one hammer.
How could this not make them furious, angry and frightened at the same time.
As the No. 1 giant in rare diseases, Takeda Pharmaceutical is bound to face the huge impact of Sanqing, so it has to respond.
This was also the reason why Takeda Kazuya frowned in thought.
It wasn't until the sun set and the sky was getting dark that Takeda Kazuya came back to his senses.
He called several company executives to discuss countermeasures.
"I believe you have seen a series of recent initiatives by China's Sanqing Pharmaceutical. There is no doubt that genetic drugs are attractive to patients. Once genetic drugs are interviewed, other disease-modifying drugs will completely lose the market."
"The company's current four core therapeutic areas are the digestive field, the blood products field, the anti-tumor field, and the rare disease field. Originally, we had a hard time facing Sanqing in the anti-tumor field. We have been gradually transforming, and now we are also in the rare disease field. The field is right.”
"The field of rare diseases is the area where the company currently invests the most. We must not give up, even if we take a step back."
"At present, the company has launched many innovative drugs for rare diseases, covering hemophilia A, Fabry disease, Gaucher disease, hereditary angioedema and other diseases. Last year, the company launched two innovative rare disease products, Ripga and Feizeyou have been successfully included in China's medical insurance catalog. This year, the company is expected to launch four innovative drugs for rare diseases in China."
"All this shows that the Chinese market is very important to the company, and the field of rare diseases is even more of a top priority!"
"Although Sanqing has not taken action against our marketed drugs yet, it will happen sooner or later. Everyone, what measures should we take?"
Takeda Kazuku finished speaking in one breath, his eyes scanning the several executives in front of him like lightning, looking forward to their answers.
The scene suddenly fell into silence.
After a long time, CEO Weber, a capable subordinate of the Gallic Kingdom, spoke calmly and seriously first.
"Chairman, Sanqing is very powerful and aims at gene therapy. Judging from the two genetic drugs that are about to be launched, they are more willing to choose sky-high-priced drugs, and they are more willing to focus on incurable terminal diseases. . There is no big conflict with us in this regard.”
"You know, our rare disease drugs have never been too expensive. Ripga, which was launched in China last year, has brought the annual treatment cost of treating Fabry disease to less than one million."
"We have always understood the Chinese market and dare to set low prices. Unlike Sanofi, which has always adhered to the global pricing system and refused to lower prices, every time we negotiate with China's medical insurance, we can give a sincere price reduction."
"Even if Sanqing's genetic drugs match ours, we still have a huge advantage in terms of price. Their genetic drugs are priced at 300,000 yuan. We can completely compete with them and set the price even lower. , provided to patients who cannot afford genetic medicines."
"In fact, it generally takes a long time for the products of multinational pharmaceutical companies to be launched, and some products have basically recovered their costs. In China, with the support of medical insurance funds, the market size is considerable. From a business perspective, the Chinese market is a pure profit. Sell one and earn one.”
"As long as we keep a low profile and give sincere quotations, we won't have to worry about having no patients. On the contrary, if we refuse to lower the price and cannot find a payer, the market for these products in China will be zero."
"Furthermore, at present, Sanqing does not have a drug that competes with us. Can we consider cooperating with them?"
Takeda Kazuhisa's eyes lit up and he praised greatly: "You are right, these are very close to my ideas."
"What kind of cooperation do you mean?"
"Of course, let's keep working together and attack different rare diseases separately."
“In fact, there are so many types of rare diseases. I would also recommend that all pharmaceutical companies join together to reach a cooperation agreement and select different rare diseases to tackle. This can effectively avoid duplication of research and development, greatly save research and development funds, and improve R&D efficiency is also a good thing for patients.”
"Chairman, what do you think?"
Takeda and Jiu nodded repeatedly: "Yes, it's exactly what I want."
"Then, we need to hold an industry conference to bring together all pharmaceutical companies to achieve this important goal."
Takeda Kazuhisa looked serious and said righteously: "As the number one pharmaceutical company in Asia and the leader of rare diseases, Takeda Pharmaceutical naturally has to shoulder this responsibility!"
****
An invitation letter appeared on Wei Kang's desk. He opened it and took a look, and was very surprised.
"The first rare disease industry conference will be held in Haishi, and we sincerely invite Sanqing to participate in the event."
This turned out to be an invitation letter from Takeda Pharmaceutical, inviting Sanqing to attend an industry conference of rare disease pharmaceutical companies.
It is said that the top 20 pharmaceutical companies in the world have been invited to participate this time to discuss the research and development direction in the field of rare diseases, exchange the latest results of all parties, and explore the latest applications of gene therapy.
"Sounds very good!" Wei Kang was immediately interested: "We have to ask Tang Que to go with us, he must like this kind of thing."
He agreed immediately and responded quickly to the other party.
A week later, the CEOs and heads of rare disease departments of major multinational pharmaceutical companies arrived at Haishi Airport one after another, and some of them were even on the same plane.
The CEOs and senior executives all stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel booked by Takeda. Many of them were familiar with each other and had been colleagues or classmates, so they got together in advance to communicate with each other and discuss their respective strategies.
The next morning, they all gathered in the hotel's lecture hall, where major media from around the world also gathered.
This kind of global industry conference has always attracted the attention of the media. Recently, rare diseases have become very popular in China, and ordinary people will also be interested in it.
Takeda Kazuya sat in the main seat and delivered an opening speech, and then explained his purpose.
"Dear business representatives and friends from the media, I believe that everyone has heard about the purpose of the conference, and many people have discussed it earlier, so I will go straight to the topic."
"As we all know, there are many types of rare diseases, but currently pharmaceutical companies are doing their own research and development. Many times they focus on one disease and rush to it. The phenomenon of repeated research and development is very serious, resulting in several drugs being launched for certain diseases. And some diseases have no cure.”
"This is not beneficial to patients, and it also creates a lot of unnecessary competition for pharmaceutical companies. We can make better plans in advance and attack different rare diseases separately. In this way, limited resources can be invested in Unlimited research and development of orphan drugs will benefit more patients."
"Takeda Pharmaceutical is aware of this and specially organized this conference. It hopes to promote the major pharmaceutical companies to reach an agreement to delineate their own research and development scope, avoid vicious competition and duplication of research and development, thereby improving research and development efficiency and greatly saving funds. , this way we can produce results as soon as possible and bring usable medicines to patients.”
"We have made a list that includes all types of rare diseases, the number of patients, and the drugs that can currently alleviate the disease. I hope everyone can take a look at this list, make your own choice after careful consideration."
"Of course, if you have different opinions, you are welcome to put them forward..."
Takeda Kazuya spoke non-stop on the stage, sounding reasonable and convincing.
The business representatives in the audience were whispering to each other and constantly exchanging their views.
Wei Kang didn't know the purpose of the conference before he came. After hearing it, he thought about it and suddenly became convinced.
Indeed, as Takeda said, there are too many types of rare diseases. If Sanqing wants to develop genetic drugs one by one, it will not only cost a lot of energy and resources, but also take a long time. It will not be achieved overnight.
If we can unite all pharmaceutical companies around the world and work together to overcome these diseases, it will naturally be the best solution.
After all, wasn’t the purpose of Sanqing’s research on rare diseases in the first place to provide patients with curable drugs?
Now that someone has made the same suggestion, Sanqing is naturally willing to obey.
However, there is one important factor that Takeda did not mention, and this is precisely the point that Sanqing attaches great importance to.
Takeda's mouth was dry when he was talking on the stage. He picked up the water glass and took a sip of water. He glanced around and found that everyone was nodding in agreement. He felt relieved and couldn't help but smile.
"If you don't have any objections, I suggest that you try to divide your research and development directions from the list. Of course, if you can't determine it now, it's no problem. In the future, if you decide which innovative drug for rare diseases you want to develop, announce it in advance. , just say hello to all my colleagues."
"In short, the most important thing is to reach a tacit understanding..."
Suddenly, someone in the audience raised their hands and interrupted his speech.
Takeda took a closer look and saw that it was the youngest CEO in the room, Wei Kang from Sanqing, and he suddenly panicked.
He quickly forced out a kind smile and asked: "It turns out to be Mr. Wei from Sanqing. I wonder what Mr. Wei has to say?"
Wei Kang took the microphone handed over by the staff and said with a solemn expression: "I do have a question to ask."
I saw everyone pricking up their ears and listening attentively.
He slowly said: "My question is about price. You didn't mention price in your speech. I want to know if there is any agreement or agreement on the price of rare disease drugs."
"As we all know, Sanqing hates sky-high-priced drugs very much. I have a suggestion here. I hope that the best price for developing new drugs will not be too outrageous, especially not to create any sky-high-priced drugs."
"It doesn't matter how expensive your drugs are abroad, but selling them in China is too expensive, which is absolutely unacceptable. If the drugs you develop are sold at sky-high prices in China, Sanqing may not be able to abide by today's agreement."
"After all, we at Sanqing are known as sky-high price drug snipers. I hope everyone can understand."
As soon as this statement came out, the whole audience was in an uproar.
At that moment, a representative of a pharmaceutical company said angrily: "Is Sanqing being too overbearing? You have to control what price the pharmaceutical company sells. Isn't it too much?"
Wei Kang smiled slightly: "This is in China. On behalf of all patients in China, I can naturally control the price. And, coincidentally, Sanqing also has the ability to control the price."
He looked at the other party, and his eyes suddenly became sharp: "If you don't believe in evil, you can try it."
The other party sneered and stopped answering.
Everyone was whispering to each other, and the media, with a look of surprise on their faces as "big news", took photos and wrote articles one after another. The scene was a bit chaotic for a while.
Takeda Kazuhisa quickly took over and said in a deep voice: "Surely, everyone, the prices can be negotiated slowly, don't hurt the peace. Today, I mainly hope that everyone can put aside their prejudices, reach an industry agreement, and promote the research and development of rare disease drugs. .”
Wei Kang smiled and stopped speaking. He had already said harsh words, and he believed that this was enough to represent the position of Sanqing.
If there is another unscrupulous pharmaceutical company that dares to sell exorbitantly priced drugs in China, he will not mind killing the chicken to scare the monkey, and let the other party enjoy the treatment of being sniped.
Although Wei Kang's words caused some twists and turns, the conference still progressed quickly.
After all, no one would openly object to something that looks good to you, me, and everyone.
The major pharmaceutical companies participating in the meeting, including Sanqing, have reached an industry agreement, agreeing to each select different diseases for research and development to avoid collisions and waste of resources.
Of course, whether it can be done is another matter.
The conference ended successfully, and Takeda Kazuhisa's heart dropped. Although he didn't know whether this agreement was binding enough, it was enough for him to take the first step.
At least he can see everyone's true wishes from the attitudes of major pharmaceutical companies.
Next, he only needs to unite pharmaceutical companies that can be united. Even if a small circle is formed to promote cooperation, it can be regarded as achieving part of the goal in stages.
Let time and the market test the rest.
Facts will prove how correct his proposal is.
