After being fired, I became the light of medicine

Chapter 154 Johnson & Johnson! (Subscribe)
"Brother Ren, you see, the contraceptive methods used abroad are completely different from those used by us East Asians!"

Ren Xiaomin looked at the contraceptive information from all over the world that was urgently collected in front of him and expressed his deep agreement.

He took over and said:

"That's right. In the chart, in North America, South America, Oceania, North Africa, and West Asia, 60% of people use birth control pills, while condoms only account for 30%, and the remaining 10% use other contraceptive methods."

"In East and Southeast Asia, the situation is completely reversed, with condoms accounting for 50% of contraceptive use, other contraceptive methods accounting for 35%, and contraceptive pills accounting for only 15%."

"On the contrary, the rates in Europe, Central Asia and South Asia are similar, with condoms and birth control pills accounting for about 40% and other contraceptive methods accounting for 20%."

"It can be said that the proportion of contraceptives used in our country is not only the smallest, but the market size is also smaller than that of other countries."

Zhang Yang nodded. At this moment, Ren Xiaomin put the information in his hand back on the table and pointed to a piece of data that was not specially marked:

"This data is also worthy of our attention, Zhang Yang!"

"15% of people in our country use birth control pills, and among this 15%, Yuting has the highest sales volume!"

"Yuting is an emergency contraceptive and cannot be used as a regular contraceptive!
According to the manufacturer's instructions, it can only be used three times a year, but among all the contraceptive pills sold in our country, Yuting's sales share has reached 75%! What does this mean? "

"This shows that not only is the share of contraceptive pills in our country very small, but the public's understanding of contraceptive pills is also insufficient. It is estimated that many women cannot tell the difference between short-acting contraceptive pills and emergency contraceptive pills!"

"This also indirectly shows that the scale of our domestic contraceptive market is very small, and consumers' knowledge of contraceptives is obviously insufficient!"

"This market is not something that can be changed by a male contraceptive pill like ours."

The last sentence touched Zhang Yang's heart.

Chinese people have always believed that "all medicines are poisonous", so generally speaking, they will not choose to take medicine unless it is absolutely necessary.

In addition, the family planning policy in the early years made the "IUD" the most mainstream contraceptive method in the country, and the market for contraceptive pills was naturally smaller.

These factors cannot be changed by a single contraceptive pill from Qingshan Pharmaceutical. It can only be said that with the end of the family planning policy and as people's minds become more open, more young people may choose to take contraceptive pills for contraception.

But for Zhang Yang, it is impossible and he has no interest in slowly cultivating consumers' habits.

and so.

After a moment, he spoke:

"Given the actual situation at home, it seems that we should indeed focus more on overseas markets."

“As for China, since it has already advanced to Phase III clinical trials, we can just go public with it. But as for publicity and advertising, I think we can do less or even no publicity!
In short, our sales focus should still be on the United States and Australia, where acceptance is higher and the market is more mature.”

"Ah."

Ren Xiaomin also agreed:
"I think so too. Should we choose to cooperate with Novartis this time?"

This time Zhang Yang did not answer directly, but thought for a moment before slowly saying:
“I’ve actually thought about this question these past two days.”

"Novartis is indeed a good partner, but strictly speaking, Novartis is a biopharmaceutical company. Our previous cooperation on 'hepatocyte activator' and 'kidney toxicity remover' were both professional counterparts."

"But this time the male contraceptive pill is more like a commodity, not a drug, so Novartis... may not be suitable."

Ren Xiaomin immediately understood Zhang Yang's idea.

Novartis is a traditional biopharmaceutical company, so its channels are mainly major hospitals and doctors in various departments across the United States.

However, the largest sales venue for contraceptives should be pharmacies, which is not a channel that Novartis excels in.

In other words, if the male contraceptive is given to Novartis to distribute, the sales may not necessarily be very good.

"Zhang Yang, what you are thinking does make sense. How about I try to find a few more suitable American sales companies? Try to cooperate with them?"

"If that's the case, then we have to hurry up."

Zhang Yang sighed softly, and finally shook his head:

"Forget it, let's contact Novartis first and see what they think!"

"All right!"

After a few words, Zhang Yang ended the discussion with Ren Xiaomin and immediately called Friedman at Novartis.

"OH, Mygod! Zhang, my good friend, I'm very happy to receive your call. Did you miss me?"

"Haha, Mr. Friedman, I did miss you!"

After the call was connected, the two of them exchanged some false politeness.

Soon Zhang Yang got straight to the point:
"Mr. Friedman, I'm calling you today mainly because of something very important."

"Our new drug research and development center has recently developed a new drug... To be more precise, it is the world's first male contraceptive. We have already advanced it to Phase III clinical trials in China, and are also preparing to launch a clinical trial in the North American market..."

"We had a pleasant cooperation before, so I thought of you guys first! Do you think you are interested?"

"Male contraceptive pill?!"

Friedman was slightly stunned on the other end of the phone, and then his tone was a little surprised:

"Zhang, your efficiency is incredible. Have you developed a new drug?"

"Okay, the world's first male contraceptive pill, that sounds great. Could you please give us a brief introduction to what it is?!"

"it is good."

Zhang Yang said:

"This is a male contraceptive that achieves contraception by reducing sperm activity. The contraceptive effect can be achieved about 24 hours after taking the medicine."

"If measured by female contraceptive pills, it is a short-acting contraceptive and needs to be taken long term to achieve long-term contraceptive effects."

"How about this? I'll send you the specific mechanism of action and drug effects, as well as the data from Phase I and II clinical trials, via email. Can you guys take a look at them first?"

"Okay, this is best."

The communication between Zhang Yang and Friedman was very smooth. After hanging up the phone, Friedman soon received an email from Zhang Yang.

Friedman was originally quite interested in the male contraceptive pills that Zhang Yang mentioned, but when he searched some market data about contraceptive pills, he suddenly frowned slightly.

The next day, Friedman came to President Green's office and proposed a simple high-level discussion. "To put it simply, Qingshan Pharmaceutical has developed a 'male contraceptive pill', which is very good in terms of both its drug mechanism and contraceptive effect. It can be called the first safe male contraceptive pill in the world."

"But yesterday I carefully looked through the current sales of contraceptive pills in our country. Last year, the size of the contraceptive pill market in the United States was only 38 billion US dollars, and all of them were female contraceptive pills!"

"So...it's hard for me to judge how big the market will be for Qingshan Pharmaceutical's male contraceptive pill!"

"Plus, everyone knows that Qingshan Pharmaceutical prefers the traditional agency pricing model, which means that our operating space is limited...

I roughly estimate that a profit of 2 million US dollars a year would be good! "

"So I called everyone to a meeting today to ask for your opinions. Should we cooperate with Qingshan Pharmaceutical?"

As soon as the words were spoken, the attention of all the senior executives present was focused on the profit of 2 million US dollars.

To be honest, a profit of 2 million US dollars would be a huge sum of money for other companies, but for Novartis, it is not very attractive.

You know, Novartis' net profit last year was US$115 billion.

At this point, Friedman added:

"The most important point is that our main channel investments are currently in private hospitals and top public hospitals, while contraceptives tend to be sold in general clinics, convenience stores and pharmacies, which are misaligned with our main channels."

"If we reach a cooperation with Qingshan Pharmaceutical, we will inevitably invest some money to develop these channels that we did not have before, which will not only cost money but also consume our energy."

"So, how to choose?"

If Friedman initially talked about the U.S. contraceptive market, the executives were somewhat uninterested.

Now, hearing that the profits are low and new retail channels need to be opened up, everyone's interest has plummeted.

After a moment, someone immediately spoke:

"Friedman, I'm suggesting that there's no need to cooperate with Qingshan Pharmaceutical for this male contraceptive, right? If it's through traditional channels, it's fine, but if it involves opening up new channels, there's no need..."

"I agree. Although the cooperation between Qingshan Pharmaceutical and us has always been good, male contraceptives are adult products, which is somewhat different from the main business of our Novartis."

"I think so too."

Friedman is actually in much the same boat.

Compared with the billions of dollars in profits of "liver cell activator" and "kidney toxin remover", the estimated profit of 200 million US dollars for male contraceptives is not very interesting.

However, he also had other concerns.

"I know what everyone is saying, but if we refuse to cooperate with Qingshan Pharmaceutical, will it affect our current cooperation? Or even future cooperation?"

"That's possible!"

Others immediately realized this problem. If they had an unpleasant experience with Qingshan Pharmaceutical because of this matter, it would not be worth it!

Next, after an hour of discussion, the senior executives finally came up with a plan that everyone agreed on:
Novartis is willing to cooperate with Tsingshan Pharmaceutical to help it sell sAC male contraceptives in the North American market. However, Tsingshan Pharmaceutical cannot make specific mandatory requirements on sales channels and annual sales amounts.

At the same time, before the agency contract officially comes into effect, Qingshan Pharmaceutical and other companies are also welcome to reach cooperation.

The next day, as soon as Zhang Yang arrived at the office, he received a reply from Friedman.

"Zhang, I'm sorry. I am very optimistic about your company's male contraceptive pills, but... I have tried my best to get the president and other executives to accept my idea, but I still can't get them to fully accept my idea."

"so……"

"It's okay, Friedman, thank you."

Of course, Zhang Yang didn't believe everything Friedman said, but he was still somewhat surprised by Novartis' attitude.

He originally was somewhat dissatisfied with Novartis's shortcomings in retail and pharmacy channels, but he did not expect that Novartis would be the first to look down on the low profits of male contraceptives.

Ren Xiaomin soon came to the office and saw Novartis' response. He couldn't help but smile bitterly:
"Zhang Yang, we used to dislike Novartis, but they don't like us either. These top global pharmaceutical companies have really high standards!"

Zhang Yang also smiled bitterly and shook his head.

Ren Xiaomin continued:

"So what should we do next? Novartis' disdain is written all over their faces. Should we find a new agent?"

“Although Novartis doesn’t think highly of male contraceptives, I think there are pharmaceutical companies that want to cooperate with us.”

Zhang Yang also quickly adjusted his mood. Since Novartis disliked him, there was no need for him to stick with them.

After thinking for a moment, he said:

"Brother Ren, let's consider Novartis as our last alternative!"

"Next, I'll have you contact a few contraceptive retailers with a good reputation in the U.S. market. They have existing channels and experience in contraceptive sales, so they should be interested."

"It's a good thing for us to cooperate with them. At least we can take the initiative!"

"it is good!"

The matter of finding an American agent was decided. Just as Ren Xiaomin began to collect information on major contraceptive retailers in the United States,
The "sAC male contraceptive" project, which Wei Tian is mainly responsible for, has also officially started its Phase III clinical trial in China.

In the previous Phase II clinical trial, the clinical data of Qingshan Pharmaceutical's sAC activating enzyme inhibitor showed only about 45% efficacy against male sperm.

After a major breakthrough, sAC male contraceptive has achieved more than 95% effective contraception.

After just two weeks of Phase III clinical trials, some manufacturers who were paying attention to this type of drug immediately discovered Qingshan Pharmaceutical's "sAC male contraceptive."

Johnson & Johnson is one of them.

Johnson & Johnson is not a traditional biopharmaceutical company. The accurate description is:
Johnson & Johnson - the pharmaceutical giant that looks least like a pharmaceutical company!
In my impression, traditional pharmaceutical companies produce and sell drugs to treat diseases.

But Johnson & Johnson's business scope is not limited to pharmaceutical production, from medical bandages to skin powder, and from skin powder to baby shower gel.

It can be said that you can see Johnson & Johnson's products in many non-pharmaceutical fields.

But such a company with a diversified strategy has a market value 2.3 times that of Novartis and 1.7 times that of Pfizer!
Such a giant suddenly found Qingshan Pharmaceutical!

　Thank you for your concern. My hand is a little swollen. I went to the hospital for an X-ray and it was fine. It was just a soft tissue contusion. I was going to make up for yesterday's leave today, but the injury happened to be my right elbow. I type very slowly, so today's text is all written by voice. Sorry, I will try to recover within 2 days!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)