China pharma firms turn to local reagent suppliers to cut costs and delivery times

By Andrew Silver

SHANGHAI (Reuters) -Pharmaceutical research and development firms in China are increasingly interested in procuring critical supplies known as reagents from local manufacturers, industry executives and managers said, as they seek to cut costs and delivery times.

Western reagent suppliers including U.S.-based Thermo Fisher Scientific and Germany’s Merck have profited in the world’s second-largest pharmaceutical market from the compounds used in lab tests for analysis and quality control.

But rising Chinese import tariffs due to the trade war with the U.S. and longer-term concerns about costs or access are spurring Chinese companies to request products from local rivals like Shanghai Titan Scientific and Nanjing Vazyme Biotech instead, the executives and managers said.

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