Big Pharma outsourcing to China
Big pharmaceutical companies now rank China as the best location for outsourcing in Asia, followed by India, Korea and Taiwan, respectively, according to a newly released PricewaterhouseCoopers index. The index evaluates Asian countries according to cost, risk and market opportunity for the pharmaceutical industry. Several companies are looking to exploit the growth of China within the pharma industry.
Because animal rights groups make it difficult for drug companies to build or expand animal-testing laboratories in the United States, Europe, and India, Glenn Rice, chief executive of Bridge Pharmaceuticals Inc., is outsourcing the work to China, where scientists are cheap and plentiful and animal-rights activists are muffled by an authoritarian state.
Large drug companies such as Novartis, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Roche have disclosed plans to set up research and development centers in China. But the real growth is likely to come from mid-sized companies that outsource their animal testing or pre-clinical trials to companies such as Bridge, which can offer them prices that are about half of those charged by US-based competitors. Beijing is fast becoming China’s leading biotechnology center, and Bridge, located in the lush sprawl of the city’s Zhongguancun Life Science Park, was given “big benefits and a 5-year tax holiday” for choosing the capital as its home, Rice said.
Despite such benefits, the subject of animal testing is a difficult one. US regulations generally require that all drugs be tested on at least two species, usually rats and then dogs or monkeys, before being submitted for approval by the Food and Drug Administration. Bridge’s Beijing facilities have been designed to meet US standards on animal care, and it expects to be certified as such by the end of the year. Air and water quality are carefully monitored, and the cages are regularly cleaned.
But there is no avoiding the reality of the work done here: The beagles in Bridge’s cages are infected with diseases, operated on, and fed substances that can severely affect their health. Eventually, their organs are removed and examined. “Unfortunately, there is no substitute to testing on live animals,” said Rice. “If we stopped animal testing, new drug development would stop short in its tracks.”
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