Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, has warned that its investments in Britain are at risk because animal rights campaigners are threatening the safety of its scientists.
Daniel Vasella, chairman of the group, said that the company would increasingly be focusing its research funds outside Europe, where growth is likely to be flat in the years ahead.
He was speaking in China after the signing of a pact with a Shanghai medical institution to identify the active ingredients in herbs and fungi used in traditional Chinese medicine.
In China -- where research costs are considerably cheaper and the ethical hurdles lower -- Novartis has about 800 patients undergoing clinical trials. In two to three years, the company expects that to rise to about 3,000.
Much of Novartis' future growth looks likely to take place in China, where Vasella said his company was one day likely to open its own research establishment.
The dynamism of Novartis investments in the far east contrasts starkly with the prospects for Europe. Vasella said biomedical research had declined in relative terms in Germany and France. In Britain, he said research standards remained very high, but the company's investment was threatened by anti-vivisection campaigners.
"The UK is the worst," he said. "It is scaring our people. If they become so scared that it becomes a major issue, we could come close to leaving."
Novartis has a ?40 million research establishment in Horsham, West Sussex, which was opened in 2001. Vasella said the staff there were being intimidated to a degree that made him wonder whether it was wise to remain. Of the 3,000 UK employees of Novartis, 500 are employed in research and development, 200 of them scientists.
The company spends ?50 million a year on research and development.
"We've had physical threats that have made me feel uncomfortable for our people," he said.
Even without the actions of animal rights groups, Novartis is likely to have focused more closely on China. In the past five years, the Swiss firm has seen its Chinese revenues grow by an average of 25 per cent per year. In the first nine months of this year, the pace accelerated to 40 percent with the introduction of four new drugs and the expansion of the sales network to increasingly prosperous second-tier cities outside Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.
Novartis' latest venture was a tie-up last week with Shanghai Institute of Material Medical Research. In the next three years, the collaboration aims to identify 1,500 compounds from the natural ingredients in traditional Chinese medicines for possible synthetic reproduction in European laboratories.
According to Vasella, the Chinese government was a strong advocate of the shared research into traditional medicines, which he said was a first for a foreign pharmaceutical firm.
As the second biggest international drug company in China, Novartis has already proved the benefits of cooperation with a Chinese partner.
Its anti-malaria drug Coartem, jointly developed with Kunming Pharmaceuticals 10 years ago and produced on a nonprofit basis, has become a world leader.
In 2002, the drug was used to treat 100,000 cases of the disease. The request for next year is 60 million -- so many that the companies cannot grow the ingredients fast enough.
Vasella expects more successes for the Chinese biomedical industry as the domestic market grows, research standards improve and the government tightens laws on intellectual property protection.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from