October 2011 | Nordic Life Science

AstraZeneca increases investment in China

The company has announced a $200 million investment in a new manufacturing facility, located in China Medical City, Taizhou, Jiangsu province. The new site, which represents AstraZeneca’s largest ever investment in a single manufacturing facility globally, will produce both intravenous and oral solid medicines for the company’s growing business in China. Construction of the site is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2013.

Mark Mallon, President, AstraZeneca China, said: “AstraZeneca has been putting down deep and broad roots in China for many years, which will be further strengthened by this $200 million investment. Our new manufacturing facility will complement our efforts to meet the medical needs of Chinese patients with medicines that are locally produced. In particular, it will help us to reach out to more of the estimated 900 million people in urban and rural communities who have had less access to high quality medicines.”

Since first establishing a presence in China in 1993, AstraZeneca has fast become one of the leading biopharmaceutical companies in the country, with a turnover of more than $1 billion in 2010. The new manufacturing facility at CMC reinforces AstraZeneca’s long term commitment to the country and its contribution to the Chinese economy.

The Chinese pharmaceutical market grew from $10 billion in 2004 to $41 billion in 2010 and, according to IMS, is expected to grow to over $100 billion by 2015, driven by government investment in improving healthcare infrastructure and expanding insurance coverage.

Getinge acquires Atrium Medical

Atrium Medical Corporation has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Getinge Group of Sweden and its subsidiary, Maquet Cardiovascular, a global leading provider of cardiovascular technologies for $680 million. Atrium is a leader in medical device technologies for interventional cardiology and radiology, chest trauma care and thoracic drainage, vascular surgery, and general surgery. Atrium will operate as an independent, self-contained business unit of MAQUET Cardiovascular and will continue to be led by current Atrium President, Trevor Carlton.

"MAQUET Cardiovascular's heritage and global leadership in the interventional cardiology, vascular surgery and cardiopulmonary space provides us the resources necessary to continue to grow our business and better serve our customers around the world," said Trevor Carlton, President, Atrium Medical. "We believe the similarities in our cultures and business focus, coupled with our ability to continue to work independently will allow our sales team, researchers and scientists to unlock the value of the core technologies that have driven our success to date."

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2011, subject to U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approval.

The 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Daniel Shechtman, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel, for the discovery of quasicrystals.

In quasicrystals, we find the fascinating mosaics of the Arabic world reproduced at the level of atoms: regular patterns that never repeat themselves. However, the configuration found in quasicrystals was considered impossible, and Daniel Shechtman had to fight a fierce battle against established science. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2011 has fundamentally altered how chemists conceive of solid matter.

The 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

medicin

The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has decided that the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine shall be divided, with one half jointly to Bruce A. Beutler and Jules A. Hoffmann for their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity and the other half to Ralph M. Steinman for his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity.

The Nobel Laureates have revolutionized our understanding of the immune system by discovering key principles for its activation. The discoveries of the three Nobel Laureates have revealed how the innate and adaptive phases of the immune response are activated and thereby provided novel insights into disease mechanisms. Their work has opened up new avenues for the development of prevention and therapy against infections, cancer, and inflammatory diseases.

Bruce A. Beutler

Ralph Steinman died on September 30 but the decision to award the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to the late Ralph Steinman shall remain unchanged, in keeping with the earlier announcement from the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet.