In 2023, the total BD transaction volume of Chinese pharmaceutical companies will reach a new high, and according to incomplete statistics, the amount involved will be as high as 50 billion US dollars. Putting aside the bustle of flowers, what replicable experiences behind the cooperation are more worthy of reference.
Written by |Xiaoqin.
Edit|彡氜.
Suddenly, like a spring breeze in the night.
In the past 2023, China's pharmaceutical industry has entered a blowout period of foreign licensing cooperation. Many domestic pharmaceutical companies have emerged, and BD cooperation has emerged in an endless stream, involving many popular ......fields such as the smash hit ADC and the "new darling" small nucleic acidAnd what are the stories behind these collaborations? As "people who have come before", what experiences do they have to share?
At this opportunity, the manager of e-drug and micro-antidote, hosted the 2024 'China Pharmaceutical Industry New Year Outlook Meeting, which was chaired by Qi Fei, Executive Director of Legend Capital, and launched a roundtable discussion on "Strategic Layout and Ecological Cooperation of Big Pharma from the Current Environment and Blockbuster Transactions in 2023" with Chen Zhi, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Abbisko, Liang Zicai, Chairman and CEO of Ribo Biotech, Zhou Zejian, Chief Financial Officer and Secretary of the Board of Directors of Columbotai, and Duan Feng, General Manager of the Investment Department of Salubris Pharmaceuticals.
All the accumulation may be able to accumulate energy for the future in 2024 and beyond. Whether it is the details behind the transaction or the key points of the transaction that they are concerned about, it is worth summarizing and learning from each other, exchanging ideas with each other to build an ecosystem, and providing some sustainable experience for pharmaceutical companies and entrepreneurs who are exploring the path of BD.
The accumulation of BD situation
Running around to hold project meetings between different companies all year round has become the norm for BD people in pharmaceutical companies, and some negotiation fronts will even be very long. Especially for companies with larger and more complex pipelines, the accompanying BD tasks are heavier.
In the past year, domestic pharmaceutical companies have been particularly hot in BD trading. Some pharmaceutical companies cast a wide net, and the objects and forms of cooperation are diverse; There are also pharmaceutical companies that are relatively "single-minded" and have chosen the same partner many times; There are veteran players who have been out-licensed in the early years; There are also many recruits in the field who devote themselves to this BD feast in the medicine circle.
Almost no one is unsure that foreign cooperation between domestic pharmaceutical companies will continue to occur. There is no shortage of guests at the meeting who said frankly that the Chinese market does have a relatively obvious ceiling, and innovative drugs must not only be in the Chinese market. Therefore, from the perspective of corporate strategy, most of them hope to go out and enjoy the value of the global market through foreign cooperation. Whether it is for innovation or cooperation, there is no turning back, and industry explorers are ushering in a thick accumulation.
A key question is, how do pharmaceutical companies often consider the timing of BD? A guest revealed that this is closely related to its own R&D progress, the quantity and quality of pipelines, the operation system of internal projects, and the global layout.
This was echoed by another panelist. In the past year or so, his company has not only had a number of products enter clinical trials, but also the translatability, safety, long-term effect and efficiency of the R&D platform have been well verified. Secondly, a relatively effective project promotion system has been established internally, which can promote at least 2-4 varieties to enter the clinical stage a year, which also means that there will be a steady stream of new varieties launched; Another important point is that after the layout of the past few years, the company's R&D and BD have completed the global layout, and the external licensing can be more focused.
"Back and forth" has become an important preparation before cooperation. Some guests gave a vivid analogy, "cooperation" is the same as "blind date", the more the two sides understand each other, the smoother the negotiation, and more importantly, the trust established by the early cooperation can lay a more solid foundation for the later stage. In particular, it is possible to feel that the interests of both parties are the same, the goals are the same, including many ways of cooperation and communication mechanisms, so that it can be smoother.
Retrospectively, many companies have followed this line of thinking, through the early contact between the two sides, gradually progress cooperation, and even show some obvious trends, such as a wider range of transactions, more and more varieties involved, and shorter and shorter negotiation time.
What are the key points to pay attention to in the BD process?
Although it is difficult to generalize about each cooperation due to the characteristics of different pharmaceutical companies' product pipeline layout and stage, after a round of external licensing cooperation, the guests at the meeting still have a lot of experience, focusing on some important knowledge points considered by both parties.
First, the point of convergence is important. There must be a foundation for any cooperation, and both sides need to clarify what they can gain in cooperation and whether they have common interests, which is very important, which has become an important factor to consider when choosing partners for foreign cooperation.
Second, the mechanism of cooperation is important. What kind of cooperative relationship can be established with the partner involves many details, including the way of communication, the frequency of communication, and the communication channel, which often affects the quality of cooperation between the two parties, including the prospect of long-term cooperation. Among them, one of the key points is how to find the middle point between the interests of both parties.
Third, whether as a buyer or a seller, the guests at the meeting emphasized the importance of the corporate culture system. In the eyes of everyone, a systematic company culture may be more important than a perfect agreement, and it can maintain everyone's long-term cooperation, commonly known as "temper match".
A detail revealed at the meeting was that some guests from pharmaceutical companies talked about that when recruiting some executives, they often talked in detail about some of the cooperation he had handled before, so as to understand whether everyone's culture was systematic and matched, which was considered to be an important support point for both sides to go on for a long time.
Fourth, flexibility is also very important, and it needs to be quickly adapted to different environments. As one of the guests at the meeting bluntly said, in the future changeable environment, I really don't know who the partner will be, what kind of way it will appear, and it may even start from the introduction of rights and interests, and finally become a joint venture.
More experience comes not from success, but from countless previous failures. This point has been unanimously recognized by the guests, "openness" is an important keyword, often at the beginning of the opportunity to try all the possibilities, such as do not hesitate to contact all parties to negotiate, through a communication will more or less bring some new opportunities, both sides can grow together, together to cultivate a long-term and beneficial ecosystem.
According to the guests with buyer attributes, they shared the criteria for selecting partners externally. In the final analysis, the criteria for selecting partners and cooperation projects have never changed, that is, good products, good teams and good underlying technologies, if all three are available, it is the most perfect state. If you only have one of them, you can do it, but you need to form different ways of cooperation according to different points of convergence.
However, in view of the fact that most of the excellent pipelines of domestic pharmaceutical companies have been "bought home" by multinational pharmaceutical companies, some guests also expressed regret and regret for this. The crux of the problem lies in the fact that when there is still a gap in the volume and scale of domestic traditional pharmaceutical companies, most of them may not have the ability to undertake and pay for good products.
Therefore, some guests are looking forward to the frequent occurrence of BD, in the future, there will really be a "Chinese MNC" rooted in China and with international capabilities, hoping that traditional pharmaceutical companies can do better, make their own scale larger, and realize internationalization at their doorstep.
The next two years will remain challenging for the pharmaceutical industry. However, some gratifying changes are also happening, and building excellent product capabilities will support everyone to go further. At the same time, some guests emphasized that for BD people, diligence is also more important, and all the projects that can be seen or investors that can be seen are "embraced".
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