Interview: British biopharmaceutical giant bullish on long-term development in China

BOAO, Hainan, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Upbeat about the long-term prospects of the Chinese market, British biopharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca is committed to it, though lingering COVID-19 pandemic and fragile global economic recovery weigh on business.

"As a global-leading biopharmaceutical company, we attach importance to cooperation and innovation," said Leon Wang, executive vice president, international and China president of the company, adding that China has rolled out a host of opening-up policies and nurtured abundant emerging growth drivers.

"In the future, AstraZeneca will further tap into the Chinese market and optimize the layout of its global R&D network in China," Wang told Xinhua in an exclusive interview during the just-concluded Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022.

Entering the Chinese market in 1993, the company has established an R&D center, a logistics center and several production bases in China, with the investment in the country totaling over 1 billion U.S. dollars.

In 2021, AstraZeneca's sales volume in China notched 6.01 billion U.S. dollars, said Wang, noting that China has become the company's second-largest market in the world.

China's continuous efforts in opening up such as the foreign investment law taking effect in early 2020 and the pledges of improving services for foreign investors have reinforced AstraZeneca's confidence in increasing input to the country, he said.

"In recent years, China has made significant progress in developing digital economy, which is also one of the areas where we are seeking sweet spots," said Wang.

"Digital technologies such as 5G, big data and artificial intelligence can obviously improve the quality of medical care services," Wang introduced that the company is exploring building internet hospitals in China.

At the forum, AstraZeneca signed a series of investment and cooperation projects with various Chinese local governments, demonstrating its determination in "building an open and collaborative health care innovation ecosystem."

Facing headwinds from the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic, Wang believes that bridging the vaccine gap is vital, saying that China has always been its reliable partner to provide vaccines to as many countries as possible.

China's experience in coordinating pandemic control and economic development is also inspiring, he said, adding that the country is among the few major economies which can maintain positive growth, acting as a stabilizer for the global economic recovery.

"Cooperation and innovation now are more needed than ever to defy the challenges posed by the pandemic to the world economy," Wang said that he echoes China's voices advocating coordinated global actions at the forum.

"We must work together to create a healthier and more sustainable future for people across the globe," he said.