Shanghai Hi-Tech Park Acquires Stake In Medical Devices Company MicroPort As Part Of Overhaul Of Shanghai Pharmaceutical Industry

SHANGHAI - Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park Development announced June 27 the company will pay $85.35 million to acquire a 24.4 percent stake in MicroPort Scientific.

By purchasing three companies - Shanghai Industrial Pharmaceutical Health Products from Shanghai Industrial Investment Holding, Device Best Technology from CMT China Value Capital Partners and Info Trinity Holdings from Fang Renzhou and its partners - Shanghai Zhangjiang will indirectly become the second biggest holding company of MicroPort.

Japanese pharmaceutical company Otsuka purchased a 41 percent stake in MicroPort in 2004 and is the largest holding company of MicroPort.

Shanghai-based MicroPort was founded in 1998 and has become one of the leading medical device companies in China. The company's net profit climbed to RMB 207.5 million ($30.3 million) in 2008. Its leading products include Firebird and Firebird II (rapamycin-eluting coronary stent system), Mustang (coronary stent system), Tango (cobalt chromium coronary stent system).

MicroPort said more than 80 percent of China's cardiac catheter labs use its products. The company's Mustang, Tango and Jive (angioplasty catheter) are marketed in Europe and exports products to Japan, India, Southeast Asia and Latin American.

Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park Development is a nationally-owned company engaged in real estate development and investment in the biomedicine sectors.

Shanghai Industrial Investment Holding controls three Shanghai-listed medical companies including Shanghai Pharma (SPH), the second largest pharmaceutical distributor in China.

"Although, MicroPort has a good profitability, it is a medical device company and doesn't fall into our strategy to focus on the main business," said Tang Deming, an officer from Shanghai Industrial Pharmaceutical Investment, one of the three publicly listed companies.

Last year, Shanghai Industrial Investment Holding became the holding company of SPH, and it announced plans to restructure SPH (PharmAsia News, May 25, 2009). The restructuring will likely move the pharmaceutical manufacturing assets from SPH to Shanghai Industrial Pharmaceutical Investment and SPH will focus on pharmaceutical distribution.

"The combination of Shanghai Industrial Investment Holding and SPH will make the largest [Chinese] pharmaceutical group with annual sales of over RMB 35 billion," said Lv Mingfang, president of Shanghai Industrial Pharmaceutical Investment and SPH.

Three CROs Granted Express Customs Clearance Privilege

Sundia, a preclinical CRO in Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park, announced June 25 that Shanghai Customs has granted Express Customs Clearance Privilege to Sundia and two other CROs in the park: Huiyuan Biotechnology and Frontage Laboratories.

"It will help Sundia in delivering shipments to clients without delay at customs. Many clients are concerned about the shipment delay at the customs. Now they will feel more comfortable to contract projects to CRO companies who have got express clearance treatment." Tang Ming, Sundia's COO, told PharmAsia News.

Normally it takes about one to two days to go through the customs process. But it can be delayed when there are too many shipments in the waiting line, such as in holiday seasons and in busy business seasons, according to Tang.

The new express process pays CRO shipment special attention to reduce the waiting time and process time with various measures including "declaration in advance and clearance upon goods arrival", "archiving system of classification and price review", "assured clearance" and "24-hour appointed clearance".

"They collected a special contact list with dedicated personnel at customs, shipping agency, and CRO company and the list is distributed to all people in the list. In case there is any clearance issue or concern, people in the list can find the right person to contact and the issue can be resolved in a timely manner." Tang noted, "Through this practice, a strong working relationship is established among all parties involved in customs clearance."

The companies don't have to but it remains an option to declare in advance and clearance goods upon arrival.

"Our shipments still go through the required inspection process, but without delay. Some paperwork can be prepared in advance to reduce time further. We can even make appointment with customs for the time to send the shipment to the customs by our agency, and the customs can make preparation to wait for the shipment arrival." Tang added.

In another effort to accelerate the import process, ten research centers in Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park, including AstraZeneca, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Roche, joined a pilot program aimed at simplifying import procedures and at shortening the time it takes to approve imported biomaterial (Also see "MNCs Applaud Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park Pilot Program To Accelerate Biomaterial Imports" - Scrip, 12 Mar, 2009.).

- Dai Jialing ([email protected])