J&J Innovation Initiates Strategic Collaborations with Three Chinese Pharma Companies

On November 6th, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, a division of J&J Investment Limited, announced three strategic collaborations with three Chinese pharmaceutical counterparts at the third China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, China. Initiated by the J&J Asia Pacific Innovation Center, the collaborations attempt to demonstrate J&J Innovation’s strength in scientific innovation by addressing current unmet medical needs across drug discovery, lung cancer, and medical devices.

Dan Wang, Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Asia Pacific, said, “at Johnson & Johnson Innovation, we recognize China as an important innovative hotspot in the Asia Pacific and are committed to deepening our support for the country’s healthcare ecosystem.” He continued, “these new collaborations demonstrate our commitment to building connections between entrepreneurs, researchers, biotech companies, and other innovators to accelerate innovation for the benefit of patients and consumers in China and the world for years to come.”

Why Innovate?

The collaborations simultaneously actualize J&J’s blueprint of delivering above-market growth set in the pharmaceutical business review last year. The collaborations will focus on three major directions:

1. Delivering breakthrough medicines to meet the needs of patients around the world
2. Maximizing potential leading brands by filing more than 40 line extensions for regulatory approval through 2023
3. Building a strong pipeline that leverages data science, advanced therapeutic modalities, including cell and gene therapy, and an emphasis on diseases and biological pathways.

Chairman and CEO Alex Gorsky expressed his opinion during the meeting, claiming “our pharmaceutical organization has created breakthrough medicines to address some of society’s greatest unmet medical needs, resulting in meaningful outcomes and benefits to patients.” He added, “that progress must continue as we consider the future shape of healthcare. Greater transparency is already empowering families, leaders of healthcare systems, and insurers to make informed choices. Our broad base is well-positioned to continue delivering value-creating innovations that will improve outcomes.” Mr. Gorsky was responsible for six therapeutic areas, including immunology, infectious diseases and vaccines, neuroscience, cardiovascular and metabolism, oncology, and pulmonary hypertension.

Three Collaborative Strategies in 2020

1. To showcase its drug discovery capability, J&J’s Janssen Pharmaceutica NV integrates established multi-target drug discovery with Hong Kong-based Insilico Medicine’s AI-based platform to develop new and patentable chemical scaffolds for difficult targets. This can greatly reduce the time and cost to sort biologically active forms of drugs that genuinely fight against the targets.
2. Shanghai-based Diannei Biotechnology and J&J’s Lung Cancer Initiative division will focus on developing better lung cancer diagnoses. Since Diannei specializes in developing AI solutions with deep learning, J&J hopes to invent a computer vision AI for higher quality medical image analysis.
3. Taikang Online Insurance partners with J&J’s Medical division for innovative healthcare solutions for sports injuries. Taikang is a Chinese online healthcare insurance company searching for innovative sports injury-related insurance packages with insightful industrial advice from J&J Medical. In doing so, Taikang could offer timely diagnosis and appropriate surgical treatment for patients.

Will Song, Global Senior Vice President, China Chairman, Johnson & Johnson, felt optimistic about these collaborations in China because “Johnson & Johnson has deep roots in China for the past 35 years to address the growing needs of patients and consumers.” Besides, “[J&J is] delighted to mark the third annual CIIE, a significant platform that supports the expansion, innovation, and internationalization of the Chinese business environment, by announcing these new collaboration agreements.”

By Judy Ya-Hsuan Lin

Related Article: Telix Pharma Partners With China Grand Pharma for Greater China Marketing

References

1. https://en.prnasia.com/releases/apac/johnson-johnson-innovation-announces-three-strategic-collaborations-with-a-focus-on-advancing-healthcare-solutions-in-china-297607.shtml?fbclid=IwAR3flVw86vQ2RJ_0Lk7_OMdjRfBMyYcvlXv2yVorZymMzD9s5jyzPhGMWNg

Author

Judy Ya-Hsuan Lin

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.