The 2nd New York Health Forum with the theme
“The Pacific Connection: US-East Asia Pharma Collaboration” was held in Yale
Club of New York City on February 11th, 2014. Over 100 individuals including
investors, industry leaders, and physicians attended this forum. This forum was
a jointed forum with New York Pharma Forum.
Dohyun Cho, PhD, the Chairman of New York
Health Forum and Mark Dennish, the Vice President of New York Pharma Forum had
given opening remarks to announce the forum. The goal and virtue of New York
Health Forum is to build connection among healthcare leaders and business
developers to collaborate their knowledge to target the future need in the
human health. This forum was particularly important for East Asia pharma
companies to expand their business in US or vice versa.
The 2nd New York Health Forum was composed of
three sessions which were “Diverse Tracks to Global Market: Journey of Chinese,
Japanese and Korean Pharma”, “Fitting into the Ecosystem: New Sustainable
Strategies of Collaboration” and “Expansion Strategies of East Asian Pharma Companies:
Shifting the Paradigm”.
At the end of each session, panelists and
audiences had chance for Q&A. Since networking among the healthcare leaders
and business providers were also a significant benefit for attending New York
Health Forum, many of them were able to get opportunities to go beyond the
forum.
Forum was co-hosted by W Medical Strategy
Group and New York Pharma Forum, and it was sponsored by Green Cross, Life
Sciences Queensland, SLI Production corp, and Rivkin Radler. W Medical Strategy
Group will host and organize New York Health Forum in May 21th Thursday.
Location will be Explorer’s Club. For further information please visit www.newyorkhealthforum.net.
Mark Dennish who currently serves as Vice
President at Daiichi Sankyo explained the importance of collaboration when
doing business abroad. He mentioned that “collaboration is essential to
companies in East-Asia to expand their business in US.”
Joy Wang who is the US office head of Sincere
Pharmaceutical recapped on current status of Chinese companies opening US
offices. She mentioned that “it is very important to have partners in US and
how to get financial supports for further R&D.”
Howard Kim, director of BD for Yonsung Fine
Chemical shared some essential tips when partnering with major pharma
companies. “Korean pharma companies had been bystanders or observers of U.S.
bio-pharmaceutical market so far. Now, they are willing to participate as
players, and we are now witnessing increasing number of Korean companies
knocking the doors of U.S. market.”
Bryan Spielman, EVP of Medidata mentioned,
“It’s clear that using new technology to run clinical trials will make a huge
difference in these emerging markets. There will be an interesting change in
the way drugs are developed, prescribed and the way they are adhered to. We see
a future where you are prescribed a compound as well as an app to ensure
adherence. Asia has an opportunity to be out front from a regulatory position,
as well. Technology will change how trials are conducted and commercialized,”
Les Funtleyder, Portfolio Manager of Esquared
Asset Management has mentioned, “Major Pharma and biotech companies are looking
more to become capital allocators while minority investments are going to be
the way to the future.”
Debra Yu, MD, Managing Director of Labrador
Advisors mentioned that “there are lots of potentials in China. Chinese
domestic companies are looking to access innovative drugs but at the same time,
they want to export their products. In this moment, US is also looking to tab
into China pharma market.”
Han Choi, MD, LLM, Principal of Oracle
Investment Management talked about the key points which investors seeking in
Pharma Companies. He pointed out two key factors which are pricing and volume
of sales. He quoted, “Korean pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have
also been transitioning from a licensing-based business model to models based
more on broader partnerships and joint ventures with U.S. and European
pharmaceutical companies. This transition is important because if Korean
biotechnology companies discover global blockbuster drug candidates, monetizing
them in the global market through their own subsidiaries would allow them much
greater participation in the overall franchise revenue potential and thus lead
to company and sector upward re-ratings.”
Young-Seok Byun, PhD, Head of R&D at UK
ChemiPharm discussed the needs and factors to build a GMP facility in US based
on their recent experience. He quoted, “Developing global NCE products had been
a long time goal for Korean pharma and biotech companies. But in reality,
out-licensing activities were most common business transaction so far. I think
building sustainable businesses through direct product revenue recognition will
be much better strategy than having a royalty stream. For such extend, we are
looking into acquiring U.S. pharma companies, and more and more Korean
companies are recognizing M&A significant collaboration model.”
Yuan-Hua Ding, PhD, Executive Director & Head of Asia/Pacific Pfizer said “it is essential to form external R&D team from academic institutes and partnering with other companies regardless of their business size.”