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Pfizer wants to help quit smoking

By Hu Yan and Mark South (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-08-02 09:40

SHANGHAI: Global pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc is in talks with the Chinese Government on introducing a cutting-edge product that could help millions quit smoking.

China's drug authority has approved clinical trials of Chantix, the first new prescription treatment to help smokers kick the habit in more than a decade, which will be made available to patients in the United States this month.

Pfizer Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Hank McKinnell [google.com]

"The Chinese Government wants to make it a 'Green Olympics' in 2008, and we are offering a partnership to help the Chinese Government to make it a smoke-free Olympics as well," Pfizer Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Hank McKinnell told China Daily during a five-day visit to Beijing and Shanghai.

As the world's largest tobacco consumer, China, which has 350 million smokers and suffers hundreds of thousands of smoking-related deaths each year, represents a massive potential market.

The project, McKinnell explained, would not only include distribution of the drug, but also involve Pfizer's medical representatives educating doctors and patients.

The fast tracking of the new drug to China is just one example of how Pfizer is stepping up its presence in the country, more than 20 years after it first arrived.

"China has progressed enormously. Today, China is the 11th largest pharmaceutical market in the world, and by 2010, it will be the world's fourth largest market. It's the fastest growing market for Pfizer around the world," said 63-year-old McKinnell, who has been with the company for 35 years.

Having invested more than US$500 million in its operations since coming to China in the 1980s, Pfizer has already established a strong presence in the country, with a 1,800-strong workforce, a regional headquarters in Shanghai and four manufacturing sites.

Pfizer has introduced 40 prescription drugs to the Chinese market, a figure expected to grow to 60 by 2010.
Eight of Pfizer's prescription drugs already available in China have annual global sales in excess of US$1 billion, including anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor.

Already the world's best-selling medicine, sales of Lipitor enjoyed double-digit growth in Asia in the second quarter of this year, according to a Pfizer report.

Further evidence of the seriousness with which Pfizer now views China was the promotion in March of Allan Gobor, the former general manager of Pfizer China, to the post of regional vice-president of Pfizer Asia, a reflection the country's growing importance within the Asia-Pacific region.