Peter Loftus

But now what we're seeing is there's a lot more of those in China.

And so the implications for the big companies is it's like another whole source of this cutting edge innovation where they can fill their own pipelines with these externally discovered drugs.

And for the moment, at least at costs that are less than when they do similar deals with US companies.

One is just the pure competitive threat, a sense of policymakers not wanting the U.S.

biotech ecosystem, which has long been the strongest in the world, not wanting to lose that position.

There are concerns about national security just because there have been issues in the past where there have been data integrity issues with Chinese companies doing clinical trials.

I do think that Western companies and investors are becoming more aware of what's being developed in China.

So I spoke to a consultant who advises both companies and investors on various deals of all kinds.

And one of the things that he told me is that

Now, when, say, an investor or a big company wants to invest in or license the rights to a drug from a smaller company, even if that smaller company is in the U.S., they're doing a lot more due diligence about whether that same drug category is being developed in China.

And so it's affecting those investment decisions that are basically asking the question of whether, say, an American or European biotech is really as cutting edge as

as it seems to be.

There is a segment of patients that just either doesn't have insurance or doesn't have great insurance.

And so sometimes it's to their advantage for the companies to offer those patients a significant cash discount because otherwise they might not even get their business at all.

It often starts with a website that the drug manufacturers have set up.

Patients can go there if they already have a prescription from the doctor or they could actually connect you with certain doctors, which then could eventually lead to ordering that company's drug or maybe another company's drug.

The price is often discounted and they could order the drug online like you would go through Amazon to do and then have it delivered to your home.

There is a segment of patients that just either doesn't have insurance or doesn't have great insurance.

And so sometimes it's to their advantage for the companies to offer those patients a significant cash discount because otherwise they might not even get their business at all.

You know, this has become particularly popular recently.