RDPAC released the report ofFaces of Innovation: Meeting the Challenge of Diabetes
[November 11, 2016, Beijing] With the coming of the 25th“World Diabetes Day”, R&D Based Pharmaceutical Association Committee of China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment (RDPAC) releasedFaces of Innovation: Meeting the Challenge of Diabetestoday in Beijing. The report reveals the severe disease situation and heavy disease burden of diabetes in China at present, and the multiple positive significance of improving the patient's life quality and reducing social disease burden by enhancing drug innovation and improving drug accessibility.
High morbidity, low control rate, new innovative diagnosis and treatment are urgent needed for the heavy disease burden
The theme of 2016 World Diabetes Day is “Eyes on Diabetes”, appealing enhancement for the early diagnosis and treatment of diabetes to prevent the complications such as sight degeneration, renal failure, and cardiovascular disease and so on and heavy impact on the patients and their family as well as society caused by diagnosis.
Diabetes is the number one serious chronic disease in China. According to the statistics of International Diabetes Federation, China has the largest population who suffer from diabetes in 2015, reaching 110 million, which means that there are one-tenth of the Chinese people are suffering from diabetes and its related disease. The death population caused by diabetes each year is over 1 million, at the same time, diabetes also causes a variety of complications such as cardiovascular disease, renal failure, sight degeneration and so on. The medical expenditure of China used for the treatment of diabetes and its related diseases reaches 50 billion US dollars every year, occupying 13% of the total national health expenditure, and 80% is used for the treatment of complications. According to the prediction of International Diabetes Federation, the total health expenditure ofChinafor diabetes related diseases will reach to 72 billion US dollars by the year of 2040.
With the rapid progress of aging society, it can be predicted that China will face enormous pressure on how to deal with the chronic diseases such as diabetes and so on in the future. Enhancement of disease control and adopting of innovative treatment are urgently needed to improve the treatment effect and life quality of patient, and reduce the disease burden of family and the whole society.
At present, there is still a large gap between China and many other countries in the field of diabetes treatment and control. The current treatment rate of diabetes in our country is only 35.6%. Among the patients who accept treatment, the treatment control rate is 36.3%. That is to say less than 12% of diabetes patients have got effective treatment control. The lower diagnosis and treatment rate, the heavier burden of total health expenditure will be. This situation needs to be improved rapidly.
Joining hands to promote the drug innovation, so as to accelerate to achieve the goal of 2025 chronic disease prevention and control
Dr. Maarten Hendriks, Medical Vice President Boehringer Ingelheim Great China Region
“For many pharmaceutical companies, diabetes is a focus area, and some 170 drugs* are under research. The need for more effective and convenient drugs with less side-effects is the general direction. Cure of the diabetes is currently not possible, but very recently medicine has been shown to reduce mortality and serious disease complications, which is a unique and major advance in diabetes care.” Dr. Maarten Hendriks, Medical Vice President Boehringer Ingelheim Great China Region also says that ultimately many patient want personalized treatment, so that despite the straight jacket the disease causes they can have a normal life.
Dr. Luo Tianhong, Head of Medical Affairs of Sanofi China,
Type 2 diabetes is a kind of progressive disease, many drugs have effect on the control of blood sugar of patient initially, but as time goes on, they may lose effect. Therefore, new drugs or replacement therapy are needed to control the blood sugar. When this circumstance occurs, the access that patient gets other drugs is of great importance. If diabetes is well controlled, the complications will be less and the total health expenditure will be also less. Dr. Luo Tianhong, Head of Medical Affairs of Sanofi China, expressed that: “It needs the joint effort from the government, association, academy, enterprise and healthcare professionals of diabetes at all levels. And it is necessary to strengthen the standardized application of therapeutic schemes, establish innovative systematic monitoring system, so as to improve the compliance of patients, and improve the disease management level and life quality of patients.”“Except high quality innovative drugs, the whole process health management of diabetes patient is particularly important for the disease control.” Dr. Luo Tianhong, Head of Medical Affairs of Sanofi China, expressed that: “It needs the joint effort from the government, association, academy, enterprise and healthcare professionals of diabetes at all levels. and it is necessary to strengthen the standardized application of therapeutic schemes, establish innovative systematic monitoring system, so as to improve the compliance of patients, and improve the disease management level and life quality of patients.”
Mike Dethick, Managing Director of RDPAC
A study in the United States shows that the drug compliance of patient will decrease by 25% when the self-paid ratio increases twice. InChina, the problem of drug compliance decrease caused by self-paid ratio increase will cause the same results in prediction. So, facing the challenge of chronic diseases such as diabetes and so on, all sectors of society should join hands and take actions. It is necessary to continuously develop better innovative drugs, and guarantee the accessibility and compliance of these treatment methods for patients. Mike Dethick, Managing Director of RDPAC, says: we are very glad to see that “Healthy China2030”Planning Outlineclearly puts forward the solution for the problem of “fairness and accessibility”, strengthening the effective intervention on main health problem in different life stages and main effective factors, and benefiting the entire population and covering the whole life circle, to achieve national health in a higher level. The government has been taking measures, as the participant of pharmaceutical industry, we should pay more attention to the innovation to meet the requirements of diabetes prevention and control.
* Based on PhRMA's report
