Finance Associated Press October 10th (Editor Shi Zhengcheng) With the changing global landscape, multinational pharmaceutical giants are also making strategic adjustments. Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche announced on Wednesday that to meet the increasingly growing demand in the Chinese market, it will further increase its local production capacity in China.

Roche's Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Thomas Schinecker, stated at a press conference on Wednesday that the company will produce more diagnostic products in China and increase the production capacity of pharmaceuticals. Schinecker also gave this production strategy a name, called "China for China".

Schinecker said: "China's market is incredibly huge, which means we will have to continue to invest to further expand our business."

For Roche, the United States is currently the largest source of revenue, but China is also a key growth area. According to Roche's financial report as of the end of June this year, pharmaceutical sales revenue from the United States in the first half of the year was 11.8 billion Swiss francs, with a year-on-year growth rate of 5%; international market business revenue, including China, was 4.964 billion Swiss francs, with China's market revenue growth rate at 14%.

Schinecker introduced that in Roche's production system, the well-produced drug components will be sent to China, where the focus of the Chinese factories is to complete the final stages of pharmaceutical production and deliver them to end users.

Previously, at the end of August, Roche signed an agreement with the Suzhou Industrial Park Administration Committee, with an initial investment of 3 billion RMB, to expand the company's diagnostic product manufacturing base in Suzhou. It is reported that Roche's production facilities in Suzhou are close to maximum capacity, so there is a need to expand capacity to meet market demand. The new project is expected to officially start production in 2028, with an initial land area of 55 acres, a building area of approximately 0.06 million square meters, and the scale can double after full completion.

Schneider also hopes that the geopolitical issues plaguing global trade can be alleviated. He mentioned that some raw materials in the pharmaceutical industry come from China and it is difficult to find alternative sources, which could cause trouble for patients if issues arise.

Similar to Roche, British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has also adopted a diversified supply strategy. Earlier this year at the Boao Forum for Asia, AstraZeneca's CEO Pascal Soriot stated that the company is reorganizing by producing the same drugs at different facilities to serve different markets separately, with no connection between invention, development, and manufacturing.

The change in production strategy has not affected the momentum of international pharmaceutical cooperation. Last year, AstraZeneca signed a cooperation and development agreement with Chinese pharmaceutical companies worth up to 6 billion U.S. dollars, involving areas such as weight loss drugs and cancer medications. Earlier this year, AstraZeneca completed the acquisition of CAR-T cell therapy developer Genghis BioTech, marking the first instance of a multinational pharmaceutical company fully acquiring a Chinese biotech listed company.