GSK takes the flexible approach to Asian growth
GlaxoSmithKline's approach to growing its business across the Asia-Pacific region recognises the need for distinct strategies tailored to each national market. This may involve a blend of price cuts, regional co-promotion partnerships and targeted M&A deals. The company also realises that innovation can come from any source, Marc Dunoyer tells Ian Haydock in an exclusive one-on-one interview.
Arriving at the station in the Sendagaya district of Tokyo, it is not hard to figure out the way to GlaxoSmithKline's offices. A large tower block a few minutes' walk away bears the firm's name and orange logo prominently at the top, one of two headquarter buildings in the city occupied by the UK-based pharma and consumer health giant.
Employees are streaming in at the start of another week. Escorted in an express elevator up to the rarified atmosphere of the executive floor, the pervading sense is of a major company which has managed to build a substantial presence in one of the largest, but still most challenging, pharma markets of the world.
Marc Dunoyer has overseen operations in the country for more than a decade, having joined then Glaxo Wellcome in Japan from Hoechst Marion Roussel in 1999, and becoming president the following year.
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S*BIO sticks to the book on its road to market
Thanks to healthy income from licensing partners, S*BIO is in the enviable position of being able to plan carefully both its strategy for internal R&D and future financing. The attractions of Singapore have also helped S*BIO to recruit a surprisingly international workforce, Dr Jan-Anders Karlsson, the bioventure's CEO, tells Ian Haydock.
The Singapore-based oncology company S*BIO could be considered a textbook study of how a small private bioventure can build its business.
Step one: use your specialist expertise to develop attractive novel drug candidates. Step two: secure major licensing deals with pharma partners to generate revenues. Step three: use this income to support the continued progress and commercialisation of your in-house portfolio.
Such success at a relatively early stage means that S*BIO can now afford to bide its time when considering how to raise further funding, amid the still simmering global financial turmoil. An IPO somewhere down the road is one possibility, but this will not be for a few years, pending additional clinical data for its lead candidates.
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Attracting brains and the big bucks
Singapore is kicking off free trade discussions with the EU that promise a fillip to ASEAN business. Phil Greenfield assesses the climate for foreign direct investment in the city-state and another of the bloc’s most promising pharma markets, Malaysia.
When reviewing the potential for pharmaceutical and biotech companies in Asia, the region's largest economies – Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan – are often mentioned due to the billions of dollars being poured into biotech development. However, two countries punching above their weight are Singapore and Malaysia.
According to the 2010 edition of the IMD World Competitiveness Scoreboard, Singapore now stands at number one (having risen from third place in 2009) and Malaysia at number 10 (up from number 18). In the first quarter of 2010 Singapore’s economy grew a staggering 13% as it took advantage of the Asian economic recovery.
Incentives such as low corporate tax rates and strong intellectual property (IP) laws have enabled Singapore to secure funding to invest in the biomedical manufacturing industry. Singapore acts as a key trading hub to connect Southeast Asia and the west and is a major re-exporter of pharmaceuticals.
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