German pharmaceutical company Merck Serono SA pledges to make its Chinese division into a world leader in oncology treatment, president and CEO Belen Garijo said after a panel discussion at the APEC CEO summit in Beijing.
Garijo said: "We will bring the research to China, develop the compounds, and become a leader in oncology here in the next five to 10 years."
According to Garijo, the company's new 80-million-euro manufacturing facility being built in Nantong, Jiangsu Province, once it starts operating in 2017, will become the company's second-largest manufacturing site, next only to its main plant in Darmstadt, Germany.
She added: "Most of our biological products are made currently at our European site, so this plant will be the first to serve China--we are calling it our 'China for China factory.'"
Eventually, the Nantong plant should also be able to supply the global market, she said.
Merck Serono's research and development center in Beijing has a specialized focus on oncology and immunology because of the unique requirement of the region.
This is so because cases of cancer and related diseases, particularly those involving the liver, esophagus, stomach and lungs, have been found more prevalent in China than elsewhere in the world. Half of the reported new cases of esophageal cancer worldwide, for instance, are all in China.
Aside from Beijing, Merck Serono maintains research and development facilities in the United States, Darmstadt and Tokyo. It operates in 66 countries and has 38,000 employees.
The company's Chinese division now sells 14 products in eight major medical areas, including oncology, fertility, thyroid disease and diabetes, according to Garijo.
"We have a clear vision in China--by 2020, we will achieve $1 billion in sales," she said. "During this process we will keep bringing new medicines to the country," she added.
Merck Serono also stands to gain from its investments in China. In a separate interview with the Wall Street Journal, Garijo said that its Nantong plant would "allow us to grow faster by producing all of our major brands for China."