Nobel laureate to help drive Baiyunshan's 'golden spear'

Guangzhou Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical Holdings Co Ltd, a Chinese pharmaceutical company, has roped in the services of well-known Nobel laureate Ferid Murad to produce and market generic variants of popular erectile dysfunction medicine Viagra.

The company, which has chalked out an ambitious growth plan, hopes to launch two variants－the Jin'ge, which is quite similar to Viagra, and the Baiyunshan Tiema, a drug made from traditional Chinese medicine ingredients. The two products will hit the market next month and would be first generic versions of Viagra in China, according to the Shanghai-listed company.

Murad, Nobel Prize winner for physiology and medicine in 1998 and widely known as the Father of Viagra, said he had developed a huge interest in traditional Chinese medicine.

"Murad's expertise will help us produce world-class medicines that combine the best of Western and Chinese medicines. It will also prove beneficial in exporting our products," said Li Hong, assistant general manager of Guangzhou Baiyunshan.

Unlike "the little blue pill", as Viagra is commonly known, the brand-new Jin'ge, which literally translates as "golden spear", will appear in red, green, orange and pink, according to the company.

The Baiyunshan Tiema, on the other hand, will be more of a protective remedy, which cures ED after use for a short period of time, Li said.

US-based drug producer Pfizer Inc had a dominant share of the Chinese ED medicine market with its patented Viagra for several years. However, the company's patent for China expired in May this year, and since then several Chinese companies have been readying their products to tap the huge market.

According to Li, the company has received permission from the State Food and Drug Administration to produce and sell a crystalline compound using sildenafil citrate, the main ingredient in Viagra.

"Although we have different production techniques, Jin'ge has the same bioequivalence as that of Viagra," said Murad, whose work on nitric oxide led to Viagra's development.

"I am willing to do something helpful for development of Chinese medicine, which needs to be further promoted in the global market," he said.

Guangzhou Baiyunshan started research and development on ED medicines in the 1990s but had to stop its research after Viagra was patented in China in 2001, according to the company.

"The Chinese version of Viagra will change the status quo of China's ED medicine market because it has the advantages of lower pricing and more sales channels in the domestic market," said Zhang Buyong, a researcher with the SFDA's South Medicine Economy Research Institute.

According to Guangzhou Baiyunshan, Murad has been appointed director of the company's research institute, responsible for research and development of new medicines.

Guangzhou Baiyunshan, which produces household herbal tea, Wong Lo Kat, also signed an agreement with Murad Bio-pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd on Oct 1 to develop a joint venture.

The jointly invested company is launching a new herbal beverage－grenadine juice, which is integrated by advanced technology, according to Guangzhou Baiyunshan.

Launching the beverage will help forge a new growth engine for Guangzhou Baiyunshan, which relied heavily on its traditional brand Wong Lo Kat for growth, according to the company.

Sales of the Wong Lo Kat reached 15 billion yuan ($2.44 billion) in 2013 and are expected to surpass 20 billion yuan, according to the company.