Chinese Diabetes Society partners with Sanofi-aventis in study
Shanghai. March 3. INTERFAX-CHINA - Pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-aventis and the Chinese Medical Association's Chinese Diabetes Society have launched a research project into Type 2 diabetes on March 2.
According to Sanofi-aventis's announcement, Sanofi-aventis China will provide funding of RMB 20 million ($2.93 million) towards the research which will consist of a genetic study involving 12,000 Type 2 diabetes patients in China. Research will also focus on a five-year lifestyle intervention study which aims to record the effects of cardiovascular events on 7,000 patients with metabolic syndrome.
"The findings may facilitate the development of new medicines for the prediction, prevention and treatment of Type 2 diabetes," Yang Wenying, principal investigator of the project and a former president of the Chinese Diabetes Society, said at the press conference in Beijing on March 2.
Data from the Chinese Diabetes Society shows that direct treatment costs of Type 2 diabetes and related complications amounted to approximately RMB 18.75 billion ($2.75 billion) in China's urban regions, accounting for 3.94 percent of the country's total health care spending.
At present, Sanofi-aventis has three drug manufacturing sites in China in Beijing, Hangzhou and Shenzhen.
-YCX