Chinese company gets rights to anti-cancer drug

Techpool Bio-Pharma Co, a Guangzhou-based company controlled by Swiss pharmaceutical group Nycomed, has obtained the franchise rights in China for an antineoplastic drug from Roche Group, the world's largest pharmaceutical company.

Boniva — first launched on the Chinese market by Roche Shanghai in 2006 — is the only third-generation diphosphonate with both an oral formulation and intravenous preparation.

Antineoplastic drugs are used in chemotherapy to control or kill cancer cells.

Nycomed has been registered in over 50 countries and regions and used to treat more than 500,000 patients.

Techpool Bio-Pharma CEO Li Hanming said the contract with Roche will be for five years. He did not disclose the cost of the deal.

It is the first time that Roche has given a Chinese company dealership rights.

According to the World Health Organization, cancer deaths are about 7 million worldwide each year, with China coming to the second highest rate of cancer diagnosis.

Sources with Techpool said that the anti-cancer drug market in China was 14.5 billion yuan ($2.33 billion) in 2011, with a year-on-year growth rate of 23 percent.