The 21^st FIFA World Cup has been grandly held in Russia recently, which has attracted many fans, however, unfortunately, Chinese Men's National Football Team has only entered the World Cup for once so far, without any goal at the World Cup, which was quite a disappointment to Chinese fans. But would you be optimistic about the Chinese team if pharmaceutical enterprises of the countries were to hold a world cup?

What I want to point out first is that I would be quite optimistic about the "Chinese pharmaceutical team"! China’s modern pharmaceutical industry, although its development started later than many developed countries in Europe and America, has achieved rapid development in recent years that would enable the "Chinese pharmaceutical team" to have a place in the world.

Let’s first see which "team members" to play the game. Forbes has recently released the Forbes 2018 Global 2000 list according to the companies’ comprehensive scores of four indexes: sales, profits, assets and market value that have the same weight, wherein, there are 66 pharmaceutical enterprises, which is far more than the 47 in 2017 and receives great contribution from China. 5 Chinese pharmaceutical enterprises entered the Forbes 2017 Global 2000 list, separately being Sinopharm, Kangmei Pharmaceutical, Hengrui Medicine, Yunnan Baiyao, and Fosun Pharmaceutical, while the number of Chinese pharmaceutical enterprises that entered the Forbes 2018 Global 2000 list was more than doubled to 11, separately, Sinopharm, Shanghai Pharmaceuticals, China Resources Pharmaceutical, Hengrui Medicine, Kangmei Pharmaceutical, Yunnan Baiyao, Fosun Pharmaceutical, Hubei Biocause, Sino Biopharmaceutical, CSPC, and Jointown, showing that Chinese pharmaceutical enterprises are in the rapid development period. Therefore, those excellent pharmaceutical enterprises listed would be the excellent "team members" of the "Chinese pharmaceutical team" to play the game.

Then, which would be the team members of other countries? We can see the "hot team members" of other countries from the recent PharmExec’s Top 50 Companies 2018. As shown in Table I, it’s a pity that there is no Chinese pharmaceutical enterprise listed. Let’s first see the "U.S. team" which would be definitely a "champion team" of the pharmaceutical world; it does not only have the champion "star"—Pfizer that ranks first, but also is the country with the most pharmaceutical enterprises listed. There are 15 U.S. enterprises that enter the list of PharmExec’s Top 50 Companies 2018, separately, Pfizer, MSD, J & J, Gilead Sciences, AbbVie, Amgen, Allergan, BMS, Eli Lilly, Celgene, Mylan, Biogen, Abbott, Regeneron, and Alexion Pharmaceuticals.

Table I: Pharmaceutical Enterprises of Major Countries in PharmExec’s Top 50 Companies 2018

Then, the "Swiss team": it only has four listed in PharmExec’s Top 50 Companies 2018, however, those are all strong players, especially Novartis and Roche that separately rank 2^nd place and 3^rd place.

Japan is also a genuine pharmaceutical great power, and has 10 listed in PharmExec’s Top 50 Companies 2018, separately Takeda, Astellas, Daiichi Sankyo, Otsuka, Eisai, Chugai Pharmaceutical, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma, Kyowa Hakko Kirin, and Ono Pharmaceutical, showing that Japan would definitely be a strong team if the "world cup of pharmaceutical enterprises" was to hold! Then, the "German team": its Boehringer Ingelheim, Merck, and Fresenius are all "pharmaceutical stars" widely known.

According to the above analysis, the U.S. would be the favorites if pharmaceutical enterprises of the countries were to hold a world cup, followed by Switzerland, Japan, and Germany. The Chinese team would be strenuous against those teams. While against the French, British, Israeli, and Danish teams, the weakness of the Chinese team would be the lack of a world-class "superstar", for example, France has Sanofi, UK has GSK, Israel has Teva Pharmaceutical, and Denmark has Novo Nordisk. However, what is important in the game is the comprehensive strength of teams. In my opinion, the "Chinese pharmaceutical team" might be difficult to enter the quarter-final, however, it would seem very promising to enter the last eight, which would be an achievement far higher than the ranking of the Chinese football in the world. Moreover, the international ranking of China’s pharmaceutical industry is expected to be further improved owing to its rapid development in recent years. Therefore, we should be confident of the "Chinese pharmaceutical team" if pharmaceutical enterprises of the countries were to hold a world cup!

About the author:

Yuntian, PhD in Medicinal Chemistry, mainly engaging in research of small molecule drugs, especially good at small molecule drug synthesis process and late-stage drug development research, having completed the synthesis and activity assessment of many anti-cancer drug molecules.

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