Behind the catkins that Beijingers hate, there is an allergy industry chain | Literature City

Written by | Wen Jing

Editor | Gong Zheng

April is the most beautiful day in the world. Some people go out to enjoy the flowers, while others go home in tears.

Public data shows that 40 out of 100 people in my country are allergic, and the anti-allergy industry market is nearly 30 billion. Loratadine has become a hard currency among anti-allergic drugs. Sometimes it is hard to find a single pill during the peak medication use at night. More than 30 domestic and foreign-funded companies across the country are vying for this market. The history of human allergies has lasted for centuries. As allergic people suffer, the allergy industry behind them is prosperous.

#01

It’s expensive to treat allergies for people with allergies

“The April snow in Beijing is here again. It’s so romantic.” Faced with the annual pollen allergy season, Zhu Ke, an art director in Beijing, said ironically helplessly.

Zhu Ke has been troubled by Beijing Yang Xu for many years. His anti-allergic prescription is to “use all available methods.”

It takes more than two hours to commute back and forth every day, so I will focus on one “Defend“”, all the masks, hats and glasses are missing. Others see him as having a good style, and he knows that he is “sick”.

Picture source comes from the Internet

Then there is “eat“. It’s not about eating braised food, it’s about taking medicine.

Rhinitis in people with allergies is generally more severe. Zhu Ke has to go to the allergy department of the hospital to get prescribed medicines every half month, namely “Montelukast” and “Ebastine”. The former is used to relieve allergic reactions, while the latter mainly regulates blood.

In addition, the hospital also prescribed two external sprays for him – azelastine hydrochloride and budesonide. Zhu Ke also insisted on using them with nasal wash medicines.

This was not enough, Zhu Ke also gave himself black technology.

He purchased a “far-infrared rhinitis laser treatment device.” The official principle is to irradiate the nasal cavity or acupuncture points with laser, inject photons into the blood, improve blood fluidity and viscosity, thereby eliminating inflammation. But Zhu Keke’s subsequent evaluation was, “I only felt a slight warmth in my nasal cavity, which was a bit IQ-taxing.”

Just do the math, and Zhu Ke spends hundreds of dollars on anti-allergy treatment in April and September every year. Everyone loves Beijing’s Spring and Autumn Period, but what Zhu Ke fears most is precisely April and September, the two most beautiful seasons in Beijing.

Also suffering from willow catkins is Yang Xinwen, a migrant worker in a state-owned enterprise. His anti-allergic prescription is “escape“.

Yang Xinwen, 32, had just experienced a mid-level layoff and was heartbroken. The willow catkins everywhere made him even more irritable.

“This year, allergies combined with heart problems are more severe than usual. I have sneezing, runny nose, and itchy eyes. Various medicines are taken in turn, and I still wake up from itching in the middle of the night. Maybe I can change my life in a city to escape the chaotic days of unemployment, lovelornness, and allergies.” Yang Xinwen said .

However, this replacement also comes at a cost. He stayed in Yunnan for 10 days and spent several thousand yuan, which was considered as anti-fiber damage fee, but it was not completely “allergy-free” there.

According to reports from relevant departments in Beijing, the first high incidence period of willow catkins this year was between April 12 and 18. However, as early as March, allergy sufferers across the country from south to north have begun to “stock up on medicines and prepare for war” in advance.

According to data released by Meituan Medicine,Starting from mid-to-late March, the overall demand for allergy medication across the country has continued to rise, with demand for allergy medication being 1.6 times that of the same period last year.

From a geographical perspective, allergy medication use grew rapidly in six cities including Beijing, Jinan, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Xi’an, and Taiyuan. Among them, Beijing’s allergy search volume increased by more than 1.2 times in March, ranking first in growth rate.

Picture source comes from Meituan Medicine Health Index

Among them, boys and girls have different needs in terms of anti-allergic symptoms.

According to Meituan Medicine’s user data survey,In terms of nose allergies, young adults aged 30 to 35 have the highest demand for medication.

Women are more susceptible to eye allergies in spring, and their medication needs account for 66.4%, much higher than men.Doctors say that on the basis of diseases such as dry eye, chronic dacryocystitis, angle-closure glaucoma, blepharitis and corneal damage, women are more likely to develop allergic symptoms in their eyes.

In addition, there are some people who have never had allergic symptoms before and thought it was a cold, but they didn’t get better after a week.

Liu Xuhui, the attending physician at Meituan Medicine’s Nose and Throat Department, explained: “For a cold, the symptoms of itchy nose, sneezing, clear nasal discharge, and fever will not last more than a week. For allergies, these symptoms will last for more than a week, or even last for a week. More than a month.”

According to the forecast jointly issued by the Beijing Landscaping Bureau and the Meteorological Department,The peak of the second wave in Beijing will occur from mid-to-late April to early May, and the peak of the third wave will be in mid-May. Each high-incidence period generally lasts for a week.

#02

“Loratadine”: The C position of the anti-allergy industry?

In the allergy world, there is a type of person called the “loratadine people.”

Loratadine is a common anti-allergic drug that is very common and well-known at home and abroad. It is mainly used to relieve symptoms related to allergic rhinitis, such as sneezing, runny nose, nasal itching, nasal congestion, and itchy and burning sensations in the eyes. .

The “loratadine people” refer to the allergic group who rely on loratadine to survive all year round. Every April, when the spring breeze blows, loratadine people will appear in large numbers.

Data from Meituan Medicine shows that during the peak pollen season,During the period from 22:00 to 8:00, the sales volume of loratadine tablets reaches over 25%. It can be understood that at night, it is the time when people taking loratadine begin to appear frequently.The reason is that once allergy symptoms occur at night, sleep will be affected.

Loratadine is so top-notch, but it is not the ancestor of human anti-allergy, nor was it so lucky at the beginning to reach the C position all of a sudden.

Allergic diseases are one of the most important chronic diseases in the world, affecting more than 20% of the population.

According to records, as early as the 6th century BC to the 4th century BC, human doctors began to record that some people could eat cheese harmlessly while others reacted violently.

It was not until 1906 that the Austrian doctor Clemens von Pierket used it for the first time“allergy”word. In 1913, French physiologist Charles Robert Richet was famous for his invention of“anaphylaxis”The term and related research work, which won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, “anaphylaxis” is thought to capture the picture of the body shutting down.

In 1910, British neuroscientist Henry Dyer discovered a method he called “Histamine“substance. More than ten years later, he realized that it was histamine that caused the body’s allergic reaction. In the 1950s, Danielle Beauvais of the Pasteur Institute in Paris developed antihistamine drugs .

At this point, mankind has begun to enter the research and development stage of anti-allergic drugs, and has gone through three eras and three generations of drugs.

In 1950, chlorpheniramine was launched on the market(Developed by the American drug company Schering-Plough, which was merged by Merck in 2009), it, together with cyproheptadine and others, has become a representative of the first generation of anti-allergic drugs.

But one side effect of taking the first-generation drugs is thatFeeling sleepy and falling asleep easily after eatingwait. If you want to drive, it is not conducive to safety. Therefore, doctors generally recommend taking it at night. Even so, patients may still feel sleepy the next day.

The second generation is loratadine, which was launched in the 1980s and 1990s.(still developed by Schering-Plough), and cetirizine, etc. Its improvement compared to the first generation anti-allergy drugs is that it does not make you feel sleepy after taking it. You can take it if your skin is itchy during the day.

Representatives of the third generation are desloratadine, etc. Its structure is slightly different from that of loratadine, and it does not make you feel sleepy after taking it.In current doctors’ diagnosis and treatment, depending on the patient’s condition, the first and second generations may be used together.

As a representative of the second generation, loratadine first applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for first-in-class innovative drug (Frist in class) before 1986, but lost to a special drug developed by the German Hoechst Pharmaceutical Company. Terfenadine, the first non-drowsy anti-allergic drug launched in the United States, was unsuccessful and entered the “slow track” list.

I have been waiting for this for nearly 7 years. Loratadine was first launched in Europe in 1988. It was not until 1993 that terfenadine was blacklisted due to the side effect of “heart rhythm disturbance”, and loratadine was finally approved by the US FDA.

Loratadine entered the Chinese market at two points in time.

As early as 1985, Xi’an Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson in China, had begun producing and selling anti-allergic drugs containing loratadine. The drug was namedAstaminea generic drug.

In 1995, Schering-Plough began to set up a factory in Shanghai, my country. It originally produced and developed this anti-allergic drug, whose Chinese name isLoratadine Tablets.

As Xismin entered China earlier, it established the user mentality earlier. The difference between it and Claritan is that asptamine is considered a first-generation antihistamine, while Claritan is a second-generation antihistamine, which means you will feel less sleepy after taking it.

Claritan, developed by Schering-Plough, once accounted for half of the Chinese market.

In 2022, the patent for loratadine expires. According to data from the official website of the State Food and Drug Administration, there are currently 42 approval numbers for loratadine in China, and more than 30 companies have production qualifications.

From the Yangtze River Delta to Beijing, Chengdu, and Hainan, there are companies competing for this market. The price of loratadine has also become more affordable. Most can buy a box for 10-20 yuan.

In the pharmaceutical channel, Astamine is packed in 6 bags x 10mg, priced at 24.2 yuan after discount; Claritan is packed in 6 bags x 10mg, priced at 22.1 yuan after discount; and Fubitin, packed in 8 bags x 5mg, is priced at 18.8 yuan after discount.

According to public market data, 40 out of 100 people in my country are allergic. In 2022, the market size of my country’s anti-allergic drug industry will reach 29.28 billion yuan. Among them, in the first three quarters of 2023, the sales of loratadine tablets in physical pharmacies in key provinces exceeded 600 million yuan. Xi’an Janssen, Xiamen Wanquan Wante Pharmaceuticals, and Bayer ranked among the top three in terms of market share, with a combined market share of more than 60%. .

In addition, in the hospital system, desloratadine tablets produced by Hainan Puli Pharmaceutical with the trade name “Fubitin” are widely used. It has passed the EU’s CE certification (CONFORMITE EUROPEENNE) and is the first product to enter Europe. Passport), its price is also relatively low.

#03

Anti-allergy, do I need to pull out the tree?

“There are so many trees in the world, why does Beijing plant so many poplars and willows?” Every year in April, the question of who has increased the pollen prices in Beijing will be raised.

What many people may not know is thatThe culprit of pollen allergies is not flowers, but wind-pollinated plants such as trees and grass, which use wind as a medium to spread pollen.

Specifically, rapeseed flowers, peach blossoms, and pear blossoms that are common in spring have larger pollen particles, but the amount of pollen is not large and is not easy to spread around. They usually do not cause allergies.

Pollen is brought by cypress, poplar, willow, birch, sycamore, etc. It is characterized by small flower size, high pollen content, light weight, and can fly to far places with the wind.

What makes people with allergies helpless is that the pollen from these trees appears in batches from February to May every year. In March, there are mainly cypress and willow trees, and in April and May, there are mainly birch, sycamore and ash trees.

For example, the types of allergenic pollen released by the Beijing Meteorological Observatory in early April are mainlyCupressaceae and Salicaceaethe latest forecast on April 20 is that Beijing is about to enterPinaceae pollen peak season. It can be understood that pollen from tree species such as pitch pine, cedar, whitebark pine, and Huashan pine will begin to drift.

Picture source comes from the official Weibo of Beijing Meteorological Bureau

However, poplar and willow trees are the most widely distributed in the North China Plain. The reason for this goes back to the 1960s and 1970s. In order to combat sandstorms, Beijing and other regions in North China have begun large-scale planting of poplar and willow trees.

The main reason for choosing this type of tree species is that it survives better than other tree species and can grow into timber in 5-8 years. The most important thing is that poplar and willow trees are very capable of anti-pollution. On average, one poplar tree can retain 16kg of dust. It is simply an all-round ACE in Beijing to improve greening and control sand and dust (note: the ace member of an idol group or a game first place in).

However, the all-powerful ACE also has a fatal flaw, and the flying catkins produced become a major management problem. According to the survey,Only female poplar trees produce poplar catkins, and considering the growth rate of tree species in Beijing at that time, female poplar trees were planted the most.

When the seeds and capsule mature, the capsule gradually splits, and the white fluffy fluff carries the seeds and scatters in the wind.

Faced with the scattering of catkins and willow catkins, there are currently two voices in society. One idea is that poplar trees and other allergens should be cut down. The current authoritative voice is: it is not appropriate to cut down trees indiscriminately.It is believed that if the “tall” poplar trees are cut down and only other tree species are left, Beijing’s green skyline will drop by about 10 meters.

One thinks that some time should be left for scientific management. Injecting chemicals into trees is considered to be a relatively effective measure to control floc in recent years.

The main ingredient in the agent, gibberellin, is said to be able to inhibit 90% of the flying catkins produced in willow trees. thus,There have also been more than 40 companies whose production and business scope covers gibberellins in my country. Jiangsu Province has become the largest manufacturer and wholesaler, with its manufacturing industry accounting for 24.39%.

In addition, some tree replacement experiments are also being carried out, that is, male poplar trees are used to replace female poplar trees.

At present, the Beijing Municipal Landscaping and Greening Bureau and Beijing Forestry University have cultivated and introduced five new varieties of fly-free catkins that are more suitable for Beijing, including “Jingxiong No. 1” and “Jingxiong No. 2”.

Among them, “Jingxiong No. 1” is an artificially selected male white poplar without wool. The variety is derived from an ancient male white poplar tree that is about 200 years old in Daxing District, Beijing. This variety has an oval crown and a straight trunk. It performs well in the Beijing area, has strong adaptability and stable characteristics.

More than 200,000 male willow saplings without flying catkins have been bred and stored in Beijing, and more than 50,000 have been used to replace the female plants.

However, it can be foreseen that this is a long-term process and cannot be achieved overnight. For people who take loratadine, in addition to seeking scientific methods, they may also have to endure it.

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