Recently, scientists, clinicians and financial investors in the field of glucose metabolism diseases gathered at the WSP Huilu College of Pharmacy Huilu Lecture Hall to share and discuss with professors of WSP Huilu College of Pharmacy on the theme of "R&D strategy and layout of next-generation drugs for glucose metabolism and its derivative diseases", in terms of drug development direction and R&D and clinical challenges.

Dr. Tong Wang, Chief Scientist of CGeneTech (Suzhou, China) Co., Ltd. opened this session of Wise Lecture Hall with a lecture on "New Drug Development for Glucose Metabolism and Derived Diseases".

Dr. Tong Wang analyzed and summarized the current situation of diabetes market from the aspects of pathogenesis, etiology, typological changes, complications, patient distribution and basic market situation, as well as the epidemic characteristics of diabetes in China, introduced the conditions of glucose metabolism derived diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, nephropathy, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and foot ulcer, and shared the glucose metabolism and its derived diseases with the representative varieties of CGeneTech and the market as examples. and its derivative diseases, and shared the frontier progress of new drug development.

In the roundtable session, chaired by Prof. Lei Fu (below), Vice President of the Westwood College of Pharmacy, a number of industry guests discussed the future drug development directions, clinical challenges and strategies for next-generation glucose metabolism and its derivative diseases.

Dr. Shao Xinyu, Director of the Department of Endocrinology, Dushu Lake Hospital, Soochow University (pictured below), shared the latest clinical situation of diabetes and its derivative diseases, current patient growth, individual differences, treatment difficulties, and the latest cutting-edge treatment tools and directions.

Regarding the need for innovative drugs, he said that from the perspective of clinical treatment, many of the existing drugs for diabetes only focus on lowering blood sugar, while doctors are looking for more than just a simple glucose-lowering drug, and it would be a better drug if it could help with cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, kidney protection, or weight loss.

Dr. Wang Tong responded that despite the large diabetic population, China's current drugs for diabetes "seem a bit outdated.

According to the 2018 Top 10 Generic Names of Diabetes Drugs in China's public healthcare institutions, acarbose topped the list, insulin took four seats, and metformin ranked first in growth.

These old drugs, Dr. Wang said, are taken with certain restrictions and accompanied by certain side effects. "For example, acarbose, the best time to take it must be before meals, in addition to the gastrointestinal side effects; glimepiride, will produce the side effect of hypoglycemia." For some people, some side effects can be fatal," he said. But those drugs that are relatively a bit outdated, the growth rate of drug use in China is still quite high, so we must have a renewal."

He further said that in the direction of drug innovation can not be lowering sugar as the only goal. "High blood sugar can cause damage to blood vessels with nerves, so diabetes often causes a variety of complications and derivative diseases, such as eye disease, kidney failure, cardiovascular disease, foot lesions, obesity, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, etc. The high incidence of complications and eye diseases make it impossible to make sugar reduction the only goal of the new generation of diabetes treatment when developing diabetes drugs; we have to consider derivative diseases and complications."

Dr. Shunfei Yan (pictured below), Investment Manager at Fosun-Star Future Capital, shared the challenges facing new drug development from an investor's perspective. He noted that the development of innovative drugs is likely to be constrained by future market price factors. He cited the example that many patients are more sensitive to drug prices, and even if an innovative drug with better efficacy comes out, many patients are reluctant to pay the extra price and would rather wait for the drug's patent to expire and the price to drop before using the drug.
 

The Wise Lecture is a monthly brand event organized by the Westwood College of Pharmacy, which will be divided into two sections: the Frontiers of Medicine Series and the Science Communication Series, dedicated to sharing the academic frontiers and industry developments in the biomedical field for the scientific research community and the biomedical industry, and introducing and disseminating scientific knowledge on biomedicine and health and nutrition to the public.