Talk Drug

Wohua Pharmaceuticals: 11 drug formulations through GMP certification

Wohua Pharmaceuticals today announced that China FDA recently issued to the “GMP pharmaceutical certificate”, that all 11 drug formulations through the GMP certification.

It is reported that the 11 formulations include tablets, oral liquid, hard capsules, granules, pills, wine agent, tincture, powder, syrup, mixture, etc..

Shandong Wohua Pharmaceuticals Technology Corporation (hereinafter to be referred as Wohua Pharma) is a Chinese patent medicine and health care products manufacture with more than a hundred years’ history which may be dated back to the Wanhetang Pharmacy in Emperor QianLong’s reign (1736-1796) during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The Wanhetang Pharmacy of that period was renowned throughout the center in Shandong Province. It had a drug store in front and a pharmaceutical factory at the back. After China’s liberation and the private property being transformed, the Chinese Medicine (CM) Processing Section of Wanhetang Pharmacy integrated with the Decoction Piece Group of Shandong Changwei Center Medicinal Material Company and Shandong Weifang Chinese Medicine Factory was established, realizing joint state-private ownership in January 1959. In February 2002, it was restructured as Weifang Wohua Pharmaceuticals Technology Co., Ltd. In March 2003, it changed as Shandong Wohua Pharmaceuticals Technology Corporation with the approval of Shandong People’s Government, among the key Chinese patent medicine manufacturers in Shandong and was listed on Shenzhen Stock Exchange on January 24th, 2007, the first listed pharmaceutical enterprise in Weifang.

International pharmaceutical giant gratifying performance in the financial crisis

Through collating some financial statements of inational pharmaceutical giants, I find that the pharmaceutical industry undertake less obvious impact by financial crisis.

The British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca announced in 2008 performance report showed that total sales growth of 3%.

French Sanofi – Aventis company performance in 2008 also exceeded expectations. The company’s full-year net sales is 27.568 billion euros, an increase of 3.7%, net profit of 7.186 billion euros, an increase of 3.2%.

Data show that in 2008 Novartis achieve net sales growth of 9 percent, reaching 41.5 billion U.S. dollars, operating income increased 32 percent, amounting to nine billion U.S. dollars, the annual profit of 8.2 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 25%.

According to the analysis, the financial turmoil leads to global economic slowdown and weak demand. It is lack of consumer confidence and purchasing power has declined, but consumption of medicine is a rigid demand, less affected, so pharmaceutical companies can market relative good performance .

Zhongguancun biomedical industry grew rapidly in 2008

From January to November in 2008, the total industrial output value of Zhongguancun biomedical industry is 23.5 billion, increased 46.57 percent.

It is reported that in the first 11 months of 2008, Zhongguancun biomedical industry achieved total revenue of 38.1 billion yuan, grew up 40.94 percent. Among them, the exports reached 561 million U.S. dollars, grew up 128%. And the industry employed 62,254 people, an increase of 15.54%.

During the first 11 months of 2008, Zhongguancun biomedical enterprises applicated 1989 patents, of which invention patent applications 893, accounted for 76.60%.

The report also shows that in the first 11 months of 2008, Zhongguancun vaccines business achieved total revenue of 568 million yuan over the same period last year increased by one-third of.

The industry of medical devices grew stablely and it is the maximum areas.

Shanghai Pharmaceutical to invest 45 million to build a logistics center

Shanghai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. noticed that in order to meet the company’s growing pharmaceutical distribution operations and medical needs of third-party logistics business, and further improve efficiency in the use of modern logistics, the company decided to invest 45 million yuan for a modern logistics center in Pudong District.

Shanghai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (known as Shaphar) is a leading publicly listed pharmaceutical company (Stock Code: 600849), with business covering manufacture, wholesale, retail, Imp.& Exp. and distributing logistics across healthcare. Shaphar is also the only one company who owns the membership of International Federation of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers (IFPW) in China, with total assets of 6,737,000,000 Yuan and over 3200 employees working for human’s better life.

Shaphar has established 54 subordinate wholly-funded and holding companies, 6 joint or wholly-funded pharmaceutical factories, 1 overseas pharmaceutical factory and 2 offshore companies as well as over 1400 chain drug stores. Being important cooperator with world famous multinational pharmaceutical corporations, the company now manages over 6000 kinds of drugs and relevant products and maintains a close business relationship with more than 4000 domestic clients.

China to commemorate centenary of International Opium Commission

The International Opium Commission was a meeting convened in 1909 in Shanghai that represented one of the first steps toward international drug prohibition. Dr. Hamilton Wright and Episcopal Bishop Charles Henry Brent headed the U.S. delegation. According to Release, “The formal designation of the meeting as ‘commission’ reflects the fact that the United States had been unsuccessful in its attempts to convene a ‘conference’: this latter status would have conferred upon the meeting the power to draft regulations to which signatory states would be bound by international law. The Commission was only authorized to make recommendations.

The meeting united the attending nations behind the cause of opium prohibition, leading to the 1912 International Opium Convention.

China will commemorate the centenary of the first international meeting on drug prohibition in Shanghai, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu announced Thursday.

The government had prepared for the commemoration of the International Opium Commission, the first international anti-drug meeting convened in February 1909 in Shanghai, Jiang told a regular press conference.

The government would invite 16 government delegations and the United Nations office on drug and crime, as well as the representatives from International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), said Jiang.

The event’s secretariat would release more details at a later date.

Bayer to invest $129 in China drug market

On Thursday, German pharmaceutical company Bayer released a news that it would invest 100 million euros (129 million U.S. dollars) within five years to set up a research and development (R&D) center here.

Bayer Schering Pharma AG, a division of Bayer HealthCare, will build the center, making China the third country after Germany and the United States to host a global R&D center for the company, it said in a statement.

The center is expected to help boost Bayer’s capabilities in global drug development, particularly to benefit Asian patients, it said.

China is the third-largest market worldwide for the Bayer group, where the company reported 43 percent of growth rate in 2007.

Bayer AG is a German chemical and pharmaceutical company founded in Barmen, Germany in 1863. Today it is headquartered in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is well-known for its original brand of aspirin. Bayer is the third largest pharmaceutical company in the world.

China bans actors in medical advertisements

BEIJING, Feb. 16 China has banned actors and celebrities from hosting radio and TV medical programs after some touted drugs while impersonating doctors and patients.

In a story published on Feb. 4, The Beijing Times exposed a middle-aged actor who imitated four experts under different names on TV while selling drugs.

The article also mentioned an actress who mimicked patients suffering from lung, liver, kidney and heart problems. She claimed that her diseases were cured after taking drugs mentioned in all the advertisements.

The article also mentioned an actress who mimicked patients suffering from lung, liver, kidney and heart problems. She claimed that her diseases were cured after taking drugs mentioned in all the advertisements.

The government said impersonating experts or patients was misleading, so new rules were set to prohibit the behavior, according to the Ministry of Health.

The circular, which was jointly issued by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, the State Administration For Industry and Commerce, the Health Ministry, the State Food and Drug Administration and the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, reiterated other rules for releasing medical and drug advertisements on radio and TV media.

Those advertisements which use experts and patients’ images to prove the effects of drugs or medical products should not be broadcast, according to the circular.

Those which contain the content of cure rates, effective rates and hotline interaction between doctors and patients should not be broadcast. Information service programs produced by pharmaceutical companies or medical organizations should not be broadcast, the circular said.

Radio and TV broadcasters were asked to check for those kinds of programs and advertisements and immediately stop broadcasting them. If they did not act swiftly enough, the heads of relevant radio and TV stations would be punished and their names exposed to the public.

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