*** Promote innovative drug development

The report of the “18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China” put forward that it is necessary to fully implement quality education, deepen the comprehensive reform in the education field, focus on improving the quality of education, and cultivate students’ spirit of innovation. Always implement the spirit of reform and innovation to all aspects of governing the country. In order to research and develop more innovative drugs in the future, China must start from the source.

Talent competition

First, create a cultural atmosphere and soil for the growth of innovative medicine talents. In school teaching and scientific research, we must create an environment that is prideful in innovation, down to earth, and the elimination of eagerness for quick successes and plagiarism. This is very important for the growth of innovative medicine talents.

The second is the knowledge structure. Many curriculum settings in the medical disciplines have not changed for many years. Many students in the pharmaceutical industry know little about the macroscopic or intellectual property aspects of the pharmaceutical industry in addition to their own majors. Although many medical colleges offer elective courses, because students have never contacted pharmacy-related majors, they do not know what courses they choose to help their development and social needs.

The third is guidance in the process of growth of talents, including selection and evaluation of achievements. Can the research and development achievements of innovative medicines have a substantial effect on promotion, or continue to use the assessment requirements for talents in the past? In fact, it has guided the development of medical science and technology talents. Fourth, the mechanism for innovative drug R&D talents to play a role and stand out must be further improved. Finally, perhaps it is the most important for the reform of the education system. Since innovative talents should have comprehensive qualities, it is necessary to establish a team of teachers with outstanding talents to cultivate innovation.

Team competition

Many multinational corporations are strong and united to achieve a win-win situation. The research of new drugs involves many disciplines such as pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, toxicology, pharmacy, chemical engineering, biology, medicine, and analysis. Innovative drugs also need to transition from basic research to applied research, requiring multidisciplinary and multi-dimensional cooperation. When two or more companies are short of funds and technology, different companies establish partnerships for a new drug or technology to jointly mine resources and develop a new drug or technology that cannot be completed by a single company. Japan has done a better job in this regard. Japanese companies have long adopted a joint research approach. Practice has proved that, with joint research coupled with effective government guidance and coordination, Japanese companies can do more with less research and development. For example, Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry has organized several biotechnology companies to jointly organize public relations. This has enabled the rapid development of large-scale cell culture technology and has been able to compete with the United States.

It is impossible for Chinese domestic drug companies and new drug R&D institutions to keep up with and surpass the large-scale foreign multinational pharmaceutical companies in a single-minded and new drug research and development institution. Innovation drug R&D needs all aspects mentioned to be effective and sufficient. Integrating various resources becomes the key to success. The formation of a team that can collaborate and complement each other is very important for the development of innovative drugs. “Three heads are better than Zhuge Liang”, but if the three heads are sceptical about each other due to issues such as the distribution of benefits, they will not succeed. Therefore, it is necessary for the government, industry, and enterprises/organizations to organize and coordinate all parties involved in cooperation so as to build an easy-to-cooperate platform.

Skill competition

When setting up a R&D team, it is also crucial to attract talents with different professional backgrounds and experience. There are many influencing factors for the success of innovative drugs, and they involve a wide range of areas. The team should have the following capabilities:

The first is market insight, which mainly analyzes and predicts market conditions, capacity, competition, etc., epidemiology of diseases, statistics of competitive varieties, characteristics of doctors and patients on their medications, policies and regulations, etc.; second, analysis of intellectual property rights, mainly Patent rights and administrative protection, as well as domestic and foreign patents; Third, technical capabilities, including the project's proposed technological advancement and reliability, and domestic and foreign technology development trends, understanding of the status quo and trends in technology research and development, etc.; Fourth, policy control It is familiar with the relevant national policies and regulations and the national new drug application and approval information. In this way, project risks can be minimized, and initial understanding and avoidance methods can be provided for the issues and risks faced by the project in the market, technology and policy.

Currently, "super blockbuster" drugs still dominate the global market, and none of the "super blockbusters" is in the hands of Chinese companies. China has formulated an innovative drug strategy and many companies are already making efforts. However, many enterprises still have uncertain future and need to work together at all levels.