1A key to our strategy for continued sustainable growth is to pursue opportunities across the globe, reaching more people with products they want and can trust.
Expanding Our Business in Asia
We have been involved in Asia's markets since the early 1950s and today are one of the largest U.S.-headquartered pharmaceutical companies in Asia. One of the issues that Pfizer and most other U.S.-based companies have faced in Asia is concern that pharmaceutical R&D is done largely outside the region, while the medicines and other products are sold within the region.
Our Asia Research Accelerator strategy is designed to address this concern, rapidly advancing drug discovery programs while complementing existing research efforts in North America and Europe. Through this strategy, we invest in Asia-based research efforts that may yield either new candidates for medicines, or new pathways for our technologies to follow. In 2010 we either launched or expanded collaborative efforts throughout the region with major Asia-based researchers such as WuXi AppTec, Crown Bioscience, Cumencor, HD Biosciences and PharmaResources (Shanghai) Co., as well as through academic partnerships with Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences.
Through this strategy and other efforts, our growing global network of industry and academic alliances is stimulating biomedical advances into diseases that are more prevalent in Asia than in other parts of the world. For example, we have partnerships with the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology and with the Asian Cancer Research Group (an independent, not-for-profit company established by Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Merck) to investigate treatments and to understand certain types of gastric, liver, head and neck cancers that have higher prevalence rates in Asia than in places such as North America and Western Europe. Our goal is to bring forward drug candidates that may be better suited for Asian patients.
China is the fast-rising economic powerhouse of Asia, and expanding Pfizer's scientific presence in China is an integral part of our overall strategy for global growth. In 2010 we completed and opened a "greenfield" scientific center in Wuhan in China's midwest region, an area of rapid technological growth. This is our second R&D facility in China and it provides a state-of-the-art platform for global clinical drug development and strategic alliances. Our presence in Wuhan makes Pfizer the first major biopharmaceutical company to establish operations in Wuhan's fast-emerging scientific hub known as Biolake.
Pfizer's first R&D center in China, in Shanghai, has become one of the largest privately owned biomedical R&D centers in the country in just five years. We also have six manufacturing facilities in the country.
Momentum is building. In 2010 we became the first multinational company to reach the billion-dollar sales mark in human prescription pharmaceuticals sales in China, which is expected to become the world's third-largest pharmaceutical market by 2013.
Providing Greater Product Choice for Patients
We continue to forge new partnerships to expand our global presence in generics, as evidenced by our recent agreements with Teuto and Biocon, as well as collaborations with Aurobindo Pharma, Claris Lifesciences and Strides Arcolab over the past few years. Our investment in Teuto (Laboratório Teuto Brasileiro S.A.) expands our generics offering across the board, while anchoring our presence in, and expanding our channels into, the vibrant Brazilian economy. Our partnership with Biocon over time is giving Pfizer a key line of insulin and insulin analog biosimilars, allowing for a strong focus on treatment of diabetes around the world. Pfizer's U.S. generics business, known as Greenstone, has been growing at more than twice the generics industry average in the U.S. Pfizer's global manufacturing capabilities and proven track record of safety and efficacy provide patients with consistent access to common medicines to treat chronic diseases, along with distinct "niche" products such as sterile injectables, orphan therapeutics and biosimilars.
