(Yicai) May 8 -- French healthcare firms, including Sanofi, bioMérieux, and the Mérieux Foundation, will continue to increase their investment in China to promote the research and development of innovative first-in-class drugs and the exchange of talents.

The fact that China is focusing on high-level opening-up and actively improving the environment for foreign investments incentivizes pharmaceutical innovation for patients in the country and beyond, Paul Hudson, chief executive officer of Sanofi, told Yicai.

Sanofi delivered 25 innovative medicines and vaccines between 2020 and last year, two years ahead of the target. In China, Sanofi is bolstering local innovation and investment by prioritizing early-stage R&D, involving China in 90 percent of its global simultaneous projects.

By leveraging its artificial intelligence capabilities and technologies, Sanofi is pioneering cross-border data flow policy optimization, which facilitates China's involvement in global clinical trials to leg up local innovation capacity, Hudson said. 

"As one of the first multinational companies to enter China since its reform and opening-up more than 40 years ago, our footprint has grown significantly over the years as a result of openness and collaboration between our two countries, from R&D to manufacturing to digital healthcare innovations," Hudson noted.

"China's economic development has demonstrated great speed and scope," Hudson added. "As Sanofi's second-largest market, we are committed to continuing to support this development by introducing more innovative medicines and vaccines to boost the healthcare ecosystem and further contributing to China's sustainable economic and societal development."

Alain Mérieux, chairman of the Mérieux Foundation, told Yicai yesterday that he admires China's development and progress over the years. The Mérieux Foundation will continue to actively promote friendship and health cooperation between France and China, he pointed out.

Chinese biomedicine technologies have developed at an impressive pace, Mérieux noted, adding that the most effective means to tackle the complexity of today's biomedicine development is setting up bioresearch laboratories in places closest to patients.

The Mérieux Foundation established partnerships with Shanghai's Ruijin Hospital in 1987. "I saw impressive achievements at Ruijin," Mérieux said. 

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France. 2024 will also be the China-France Year of Culture and Tourism.

Editors: Zhang Yushuo, Futura Costaglione