On November 16, the 2024 China Pharmaceutical Industry Development Conference and Shanghai International Biomedical Industry Week jointly kicked off at Zhangjiang Science Hall. As an important part of the conference, the “Typical Cases of Global Cooperation in the Pharmaceutical Industry” systematically presented the current development status and changes in China’s pharmaceutical industry.
In the past five years, the national pharmaceutical industry has continued to experience high-quality development, with steady annual revenue growth and a continuously increasing number of research and development pipelines. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, the number of pharmaceutical industrial enterprises above a certain scale in China reached 13,000, and the number of approved domestic Class 1 innovative drugs and Class III innovative medical devices continued to grow.
“Typical Cases of Global Cooperation in the Pharmaceutical Industry” at the 2024 China Pharmaceutical Industry Development Conference. Image provided by the Municipal Science and Technology Commission.
The reporter from The Paper learned from the conference that since the “14th Five-Year Plan”, a total of 113 domestic innovative drugs have been approved for marketing in China, which is 2.8 times the number during the “13th Five-Year Plan”, with a market size reaching 100 billion yuan. A total of 165 domestic innovative medical devices have been approved for marketing, incorporating cutting-edge technologies such as deep learning, magnetic levitation, additive manufacturing, multi-modal imaging, and magnetic resonance monitoring.
Furthermore, China’s new drug development capabilities have ranked among the international advanced level. In 2023, there were over 50 overseas licensing transactions for China’s innovative drugs, with the number of overseas licensed projects exceeding the number of licensed-in projects for the first time, amounting to USD 41.96 billion, of which Shanghai pharmaceutical companies accounted for 38%.
For example, the toripalimab injection “Tuoyi” developed by Shanghai Junshi Biosciences was listed in the United States in October 2023. It is the first PD-1 inhibitor approved by the National Medical Products Administration and has conducted over 40 clinical studies covering more than 15 indications globally, and has been approved for marketing in over 30 countries and regions.
China’s role in the global pharmaceutical industry development has shifted from a participant to a driver, continuously contributing Chinese wisdom and solutions to the development of global medical and health undertakings. As of the first half of 2024, there were 370 overseas licensing events in China’s pharmaceutical industry, involving amounts exceeding USD 120 billion.
Chinese medical devices have also demonstrated strong innovation capabilities internationally, with many medical device companies such as United Imaging and Mindray going abroad. The “uExplorer” developed by Shanghai United Imaging Healthcare is the world’s first ultra-high-performance PET/CT that covers the whole human body and observes physiological and pathological processes in real-time at the molecular level. It was listed in the United States in 2018.
In the manufacturing sector, China is leading the global pharmaceutical industry into a more efficient, precise, and green new stage. As of now, a total of 23 national-level smart manufacturing demonstration factories have been established in the pharmaceutical field in China, and there are over 30 AI drug research and development pipelines in the clinical stage.
With the sustained opening-up of China’s pharmaceutical market, the international vision and globalization strategies of Chinese medical device companies have strengthened the confidence of global pharmaceutical companies in investing and establishing a presence in China. Over 90% of the top 50 global pharmaceutical and medical device companies have a presence in China, and 75% of the top 20 domestic medical device companies have established a presence in overseas markets.