Ferring bets on infertility treatments in China

Ferring China chief executive Eric Breumier says the company will keep its long-term commitment in China and will continue to invest in the country, reports The Pharma Letter’s China correspondent, Wang Fangqing.

The privately-held Swiss fertility drug developer has many reasons to feel confident about its China business. For starters, China recently allowed each married couple to have up to three children from the previous two as a solution against its vast, fast growing aging population.

But the policy faces an awkward reality - the rising infertility rate, which rose to 18% in 2020 from 12% in 2007, according to a study published in May on The Lancet by China’s prominent reproductive specialists. Frost & Sullivan predicts China will have 56.2 million infertile couples in 2023, up 17.8% from 47.7 million in 2018.