Almirall, a global biopharmaceutical company focused on medical dermatology, has held an event to celebrate its new offices in the Jing’an district in Shanghai.
Through its presence in Shanghai, the Barcelona-based company, under the name Almirall Shanghai Pharmaceutical Consulting, aims to create additional opportunities for innovation in medical dermatology by combining its in house R&D capabilities with Chinese collaborations.
The event, titled ‘Advancing innovation in dermatology with partnerships in China’, gathered leaders of the pharmaceutical industry in China, institutional representatives from China and Spain and future and current partners.
Almirall’s event focused on opportunities for collaboration to advance innovation in life sciences that will enable the development of innovation treatments in medical dermatology.
Carlos Gallardo, Almirall Chairman and CEO, said: “Almirall [is] combining the commercialisation of our broad portfolio of dermatology products with a sustained focus on innovation that enables us to develop novel treatments aimed at further supporting patients and the medical community.
“The inauguration of our new offices in Shanghai underlines our collaborative approach to innovation and is a recognition of the life science potential in China.
“We continue to invest in growing our in-house R&D capabilities in Barcelona, while the complementary work in China will allow us to broaden our innovation potential through new partnerships.
“The successful collaboration we have with Simcere in alopecia areata and atopic dermatitis is a blueprint for this work.”
This opening comes as China has accelerated its life sciences capabilities and licensing deals in the pharma sector, and Almirall has started expanding its leadership in medical dermatology through a trajectory of sustained growth and margin expansion.
In 2022, Almirall established its Chinese partnership with Simcere on the development of an interleukin 2 mutant fusion protein (IL-2muFc) initially targeting alopecia areata and atopic dermatitis, with the companies working closely to advance the development of this therapy since then.
Zhou Gaobo, Chief Investment Officer of Simcere Pharmaceutical Group, said: “Congratulations to Almirall on establishing an office in China and expanding its presence in the country. This milestone reflects the further development of the cooperation between China and Spain in the field of innovative medicines.”
China and Spain celebrated the 20th anniversary of their comprehensive strategic partnership in 2025. Since then, the Action Plan on Strengthening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (2025–2028) has been adopted, which highlights the pharmaceutical sector as a key priority.