China Tells

Novartis is world’s No.3 Pharmaceutical manufacturer. They produce a wide range of commonly used medicines such as Tegritol and Exelon. Recently Novartis announced that they are going to invest 1.25 Billion USD in China with a focus on R&D (See artile from Business Week). Such an investment would make Shanghai one of Novartis’ biggest R&D centers along with Basel and Cambridge. The main motive behind Novartis’ move seems the coming medical reform in China in sharp contrast to USA. In short, China with its record high saving rate and low medical coverage for rural people has great potential to increase spending in medicals provided that the government is determined to do so. On the other hand, USA seems falling to a downtrend in medical spending due to Obama Administration’s intention to reform domestic medical system and bring down the medical cost. Such a sharp contrast between two countries is well reflected by Novartis’ decision to invest in China.

诺华制药是全球第三大药品制造商。最近他们宣布在中国投资12亿5千万美元打造全球最大的研发中心之一。这样大规模的投资显现了诺华制药对中国市场的信心和决心。目前看来诺华制药在中国的巨额投资其主要动因是看中了中国医疗保险改革的前景。同时由于美国政府的医疗改革很可能使医药市场萎缩，中国看起来是唯一可以弥补美国市场损失的救命稻草。