The Ministry of Health said that around 10 million people in China have contracted chronic diseases every year since 2002.

 

"Prevention and control of chronic diseases will be one of the seven top tasks of China’s medical care reform by 2020," said Health Minister Chen Zhu.

 

The central government will invest a total of 400 billion yuan by 2020 in the seven key projects, which also involve improvements to the grassroots healthcare system, psychological disease prevention, the construction of a digital public health information network, medical device innovation, the development of traditional Chinese medicine, and the training of general practitioners.

 

According to the ministry, 85 percent of deaths in China are caused by chronic diseases, with expenditure on the treatment of these accounting for 69 percent of China’s total healthcare costs last year.

 

Foreign pharmaceutical companies have an advantage in this sector, according to Song Yingtong, a senior analyst at Beijing Chnmed Consulting Co Ltd, a domestic pharmaceutical consulting firm.

 

"They have accumulated rich experience in chronic disease treatment in developed markets," he said.

 

MSD, the world’s second-largest drug producer by sales, announced at the end of last year it will invest $1.5 billion in research and development in China within five years, with a large part of the funds devoted to the development of chronic disease medicines tailored to local people.

 

The company is building an Asia research and development headquarters in Beijing and is cooperating with local counterparts and academic institutions.

 

Michel Vounatsos, chairman and president of MSD China, said that the new R&D center, an integrated part of the company’s global research network, will speed up the introduction of the company’s newly developed medicines to China as well as cooperation with local partners that will help create products tailored to Chinese patients.

 

 

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