The Chinese government has unveiled an ambitious five-year plan for its biomedical industry, as the country looks to cement its role as a powerhouse in the global drug innovation landscape. In a joint notice from various ministries of government, China wants to increase its share of originally innovated drugs. By 2030, China wants to make and develop 25% of global first-in-class drugs.
President Xi Jinping has outlined a series of initiatives to achieve this and its wider target of becoming a global pharma leader. Research and development (R&D) efforts will significantly ramp up, AI and quantum computing will continue to be harnessed in drug discovery, and pharma ecosystems will be built beyond just pipelines. In total, there are 25 priority tasks across innovation capacity, research, and technology.
In an English notice, the government stated: "The plan arrives at a pivotal moment as China's pharmaceutical industry shifts rapidly from its traditional identity as a supplier of active pharmaceutical ingredients and a large consumption market toward a new phase defined by the export of innovative drugs." All this will help the industry in China reach lofty heights. The ambition is to have an industry turning over 3.5tn yuan ($520bn) in annual revenue by 2030. This will be fuelled by some companies with annual revenues exceeding $1.5bn, with the government lobbying for 50 companies to achieve this by 2030.
All companies included in the 2030 targets have an annual revenue of at least $3m. In terms of therapies, Beijing has placed an emphasis on next-generation drugs. The notice highlighted antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), cell and gene therapies (CGTs), and CAR-T, amongst others.
Vaccines were also touted as a major growth driver, with a move to newer platforms like mRNA favoured by ministerial officials. At least five Chinese drugs should achieve global annual sales exceeding $1bn, according to the plan. The plan also has a section dedicated to traditional Chinese medicine, which it aims to industrialise via modern frameworks.
Reacting to the strategy, Citi analysts said: "At its core, the 15-year plan articulates a shift in China's pharmaceutical industry from scale-driven growth toward innovation-driven, quality-oriented development, with an explicit ambition for China to rank among world leaders by 2030. The breadth of named technology areas – innovative drugs including traditional Chinese medicine, innovative medical devices, AI-driven drug discovery, and CDMO/CRO – signals a broad-based, whole-value-chain policy push." Over the past decade, China has become a popular destination for Western big pharma searching for pipeline additions. Licensing deals between US and Chinese biopharma companies hit record highs in 2024, a 280% increase from 2020, according to analysis by GlobalData, parent company of Pharmaceutical Technology.
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