Hengrui Pharmaceutical has integrated innovation factors into the company's blood vein to transform itself from a generic drug maker into an innovative drug maker and achieved outstanding results in the pharmaceutical industry, ranking among the Forbes’ top 100 most innovative companies.
Hengrui Pharmaceutical’s self-developed bio-innovative drug Thioprene has been officially launched recently. This is Hengrui's first domestically marketed innovative drug. The injection for leukemia chemotherapy, while killing cancer cells, retains the white blood cells to the utmost extent.
Every year, 60,000 cancer patients worldwide suffer from leukopenia due to chemotherapy and therefore face new life risks. By transforming from a generic drug maker into an innovative drug maker, Hengrui has benefited a lot from its continuous innovation.
Hengrui Pharmaceutical has developed with the country’s profess of reform and opening up since its transformation from a Lianyungang-based pharmaceutical factory into a private pharmaceutical company.
After getting a firm foothold, the drug maker targeted first-filed generic drug to make a breakthrough and secured leading market shares in anti-tumor drugs, surgical anesthesia, special infusion, and contrast agents. It is now the only Chinese pharmaceutical company that has materialized large-scale sales of injections to the European, American and Japanese markets.
After accumulating experience and talents from first-filed generic drug, Hengrui proposed a strategy in 2000 to gradually make innovative drugs by investing heavily in establishing a new drug research and development center in Shanghai.
At present, Hengrui has established R&D centers and clinical medical centers in the United States, Japan and China. With a multinational R&D team of more than 2,000 people, it has formed an innovative system with clear division of labor and unified collaboration. The company's annual R&D expenditure accounts for about 10% of its operating income.
In 2011, Hengrui's first innovative drug and anti-tumor drug: Irinotecan Hydrochloride Injection was approved by the US FDA and approved for marketing in the United States. This year, the company has had two innovative drugs, JAK1 inhibitors and BTK inhibitors, licensed to US companies, setting the highest amount of individual product transfer fees for Chinese pharmaceutical companies.
