"This is already fast, because we have basically confirmed that this drug is effective, eliminating the most critical step. Many large pharmaceutical companies often take up to ten years to develop new drugs." Academician Ma Lin said with a smile.

"Speaking of drug research and development, I think of a movie I watched last year. Have you seen "I'm Not the God of Medicine"? There are many questions in it that I didn't understand. I want to ask you for advice." Shen Long said quickly, Medicine The questions are so professional that laymen can’t even figure out what’s going on.

Academician Ma Lin nodded and signaled Shen Long to speak. Shen Long asked, "This movie is quite heart-wrenching to watch, but after watching it, I thought about it carefully. Except for Zhang Changlin, who sells fake medicines, there seems to be no real one." Villain; At that time, I saw that the representatives of the pharmaceutical companies were very unhappy, but after checking some information, I found that as you just said, the research and development of new drugs often requires billions of dollars and a long time, but they sell them at such high prices The price seems normal.”

"After all, nothing can promote scientific progress more than profit-driven. If developing new drugs does not make money, those pharmaceutical companies will naturally not spend their energy on it. Although the price of specific drugs is expensive now, there is always enough to eat. If If no one develops new drugs, then you won’t be able to take them even if you want to.”

"Well, what you said does make sense, but it's still too simple to look at the problem. The problems reflected in this movie are very realistic and sensitive, so the director did not show many aspects." Professor Ma Lin took a sip of tea. Said, "Take Gleevec in "I'm Not the God of Medicine" as an example. This drug is actually quite different from ordinary drugs."

"First of all, do you know that the global price of this drug is the most expensive in China?" Professor Ma Lin asked.

Shen Long shook his head, "It shouldn't be. Logically speaking, China's economy was still very underdeveloped at that time, and its per capita income was far behind that of developed countries in Europe and the United States. Even if the price of Glenin should not be cheaper than that of Europe and the United States, it should at least be the same. Bar? "

"This is the fact. Glenin is more expensive in China than in Japan, Europe and the United States. There are many reasons for this. The price of drugs in our country is divided into several categories. One category is government pricing, such as vaccines and other widely used necessary drugs. , the government will limit profits through pricing so that more people can use it."

"One type is market regulation, which allows the market to adjust the prices of these drugs. Usually due to the fierce competition, the prices of these drugs are not very high; the other type is government-guided prices, which limit the maximum retail price; and Glenin It belongs to independent pricing. Nova has complete pricing power. They can sell it as high as they like. This situation is not appropriate. The country is adjusting relevant policies now, but it has not yet taken shape."

"Another reason is that China's pharmaceutical circulation was too complicated back then. From the drug factory pricing to the hospital pharmacy, there were too many gray spaces in the middle channels, which invisibly increased the cost, which patients had to bear. Higher prices.”

"When Glenin entered the domestic market, the market price was 23,500 yuan, but the film was sold for 37,000 yuan. What is the reason for the extra price difference?"

"This has improved in recent years. Since Dr. He Ruyi took charge of the Drug Evaluation Center, he began to promote the two-invoice system for medicines. There can only be one circulation link between medicines from pharmaceutical companies to hospitals or pharmacy terminals, and only pharmaceuticals are allowed. There are two invoices from the enterprise to the agent, and from the agent to the terminal, which effectively reduces the cost of drug circulation and limits the gray chain."

"The last reason is that China's pharmaceutical industry was relatively backward at that time. Let alone innovative drugs, even generic drugs were difficult to produce. The market lacked competition, so prices naturally could not be reduced. However, this situation also has good development, and domestic The production level of generic drugs has improved. For example, the Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical Factory launched Jinge immediately after Pfizer's Viagra patent expired."

We have absolutely no use for this thing, so even if the price is reduced, it has nothing to do with us.

"As for Glenin, many pharmaceutical companies have completed the production of generic drugs. The price has reached eight to nine hundred and less than one thousand yuan per box, which is almost the same as in the movie. If inflation and other factors are taken into account, even Cheaper than in the movie.”

"But this is when the patent has expired, right? Nova's patent in the movie has not expired. Even if it has the ability to imitate it, it probably won't be able to produce it, right?" Shen Long was a little regretful, otherwise he would have obtained it from Lao Bai The knowledge and technology can be successfully copied.

"Indeed." Academician Ma Lin did not discuss this issue in depth. "However, the development cost of Glenin is not as high as that generated by Novavax. It is not used for massive testing in the development of other drugs. The academic community has The cause of this disease was clarified and named the Philadelphia chromosome."

"After more than 20 years of careful research, the academic community has completed important preparatory work for the development of targeted drugs without receiving any funding from Novavax; subsequently, Brian Drucker, an academician of the National Academy of Sciences, successively studied at Harvard Medical School and the Oregon Cancer Institute for targeted drug development.”

"It was not until five years later that pharmaceutical company researcher Leyden participated in the experiment that a pharmaceutical company first appeared in the research and development of Glenin; another eight years later, Leyden's company merged with another company to form Novavax Company, Leyden was fired, Nova tried to kill the Glenin project, and Drucker convinced them to keep it."

"In 2001, this drug was finally successfully developed, and the biological mechanism of the molecules that make up this drug was confirmed by Professor Gulieyan of Rockefeller University. Because of its outstanding effects and the biological mechanism that had been determined by the academic community, Glenin was used in the second phase of clinical trials. It was not completed yet, and it passed FDA approval before the Phase III clinical trial started and was successfully launched."

"You have to know that in clinical trials, the first phase is the lowest cost, which can be won at 10 million US dollars, the second phase is the second, which costs about 50 million US dollars, and the third phase is the most expensive, costing up to 300 million US dollars. Many small pharmaceutical companies It was because we could not afford this part of the cost that we had to sell the company to a large pharmaceutical company; this link saved Novavax a lot of money."
Chapter completed!