Chinese innovative drugs are accelerating their overseas expansion

Since the beginning of this year, innovative drugs have accelerated their hard core strength as dark horses on the "hot selling list" of Chinese export products. In the past, when it came to domestic drugs, people thought of cheap generic drugs. Nowadays, China's innovative drugs are upgrading their quality, and global pharmaceutical companies are competing to "purchase goods". The development of China's pharmaceutical industry has entered a new stage.

Chinese innovative drugs: 'Going global fever' continues to heat up and show strong momentum

In March of this year, a global first new drug developed by a Chinese pharmaceutical company for the treatment of bone marrow fibrosis was acquired by a French biopharmaceutical giant;

In June of this year, Chinese pharmaceutical companies independently developed the world's first "chemotherapy free" innovative gastric cancer drug, which had already obtained overseas revenue through authorization before being launched domestically;

In July of this year, Chinese pharmaceutical companies independently developed innovative drugs for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and authorized overseas rights to multinational pharmaceutical companies for a total of 1.9 billion US dollars, setting a record for the highest single product transaction volume in China's respiratory field in nearly three years

Since the beginning of this year, the trend of Chinese innovative drugs going global has continued to heat up and is strong. According to data from the National Medical Products Administration, in the first half of the year, China authorized 81 innovative drugs to foreign countries, with a total transaction amount of about 110 billion US dollars, exceeding 80% of the total for 2025 and more than double that of 2024. From the perspective of varieties, China's innovative drugs' foreign authorization transactions cover 10 mainstream therapeutic fields such as oncology, metabolism, immunology, and neurology, with the main transferee companies coming from 20 countries and regions including the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and Italy.

This impressive report card indicates that China's globalization of innovative drugs has accelerated. According to an analysis by Reuters in the UK, the cost of acquiring Chinese biotechnology patents is much lower than the cost of independent research and development. The industry expects that the scale of China's biotechnology patent authorization transactions will reach a historic high in 2026.

Authorized cooperation enables Chinese pharmaceutical companies to quickly recoup funds and support research and development, "said Li Xin, Executive Director of Junshi Biotechnology." Chinese pharmaceutical companies leverage the mature overseas systems of multinational pharmaceutical companies to achieve global product launches and accumulate global operational experience through cooperation

Chinese pharmaceutical companies: from exporting products to exporting capabilities

The way Chinese pharmaceutical companies participate in global innovation is also changing. In the past, Chinese pharmaceutical companies sold products and held separate accounts; Now, Chinese pharmaceutical companies are exporting their capabilities as "global partners" and jointly developing and sharing profits with multinational pharmaceutical companies.

In January of this year, Shiyao Group and AstraZeneca reached a cooperation agreement on multiple long-acting peptide drugs and related technology platforms, with a potential total amount of 18.5 billion US dollars. In May of this year, Xinda Biotechnology signed a cooperation agreement with Pfizer with a potential total transaction value of up to 10.5 billion US dollars, covering 12 cutting-edge early cancer innovation projects. Chinese companies are fully involved in research and development decision-making, clinical design, and commercial operation.

Zhou Hui, Chief R&D Officer of Cancer Pipeline at Xinda Biopharmaceutical Group, said that the core value of this agreement lies in the word "equality". Chinese pharmaceutical companies have accelerated from being "followers" of global innovation in the past to "co builders" working side by side. The Wall Street Journal reports that major global pharmaceutical companies are turning to China in search of innovative inspiration. China has become a major player in the field of biotechnology

Jin Chunlin, director of the Shanghai Health and Health Development Research Center, believes that this change is not only supported by innovative transaction forms, but also by the improvement of China's innovative drug asset quality and research and development capabilities. As some fields move from "following" to "running in parallel", and even achieve partial leadership, Chinese companies are beginning to participate in global value creation with a more equal attitude.

Behind the trend of innovative drugs going global: putting independent innovation in the first place

Chinese innovative drugs are increasingly recognized by overseas markets, driven by multiple empowerment factors such as innovation capabilities in the pharmaceutical industry, supporting industrial chains, policy dividends, and cost advantages.

There is a saying in the industry about the "three 10s" for innovative drug research and development: usually with a research and development investment of 1 billion yuan, it takes 10 years, and the success rate may only be 10%. Faced with this thorny road, Chinese pharmaceutical companies prioritize independent innovation, continuously increasing investment, improving research and development efficiency and level. After years of layout and accumulation, China has established a fully chain, independently controllable biopharmaceutical innovation system, covering a complete closed loop of source target mining, molecular compound screening, and large-scale industrial production.

Empowered by digital and green technologies, China's pharmaceutical industry is accelerating its transformation and upgrading. The AI computing power center of a biopharmaceutical company in Shanxi can identify the structures of millions of protein functional regions in a short period of time and directly screen out invalid molecules.

The research and development of innovative drugs and going global cannot be separated from policy protection. The Chinese drug price registration system will be launched and put into operation in 2025, and the multilingual price vouchers issued by the system will provide key price support for domestic innovative drugs to explore the international market. Since 2026, policies such as the "15th Five Year Plan for National Health" that encourage innovative drug research and development have been implemented intensively, continuously stimulating industrial innovation vitality. Xu Haoyu, President of the All China Federation of Industry and Commerce Chamber of Commerce for the Pharmaceutical Industry, said, "The top-level design efforts continue to increase, policy dividends continue to be released, and the confidence and confidence in the development of the industry continue to strengthen

Large scale, low-cost manufacturing is an accelerator for innovative drug research and development and going global. Taking cell culture medium, one of the core raw materials in biopharmaceuticals, as an example, in the past, this raw material was monopolized by a few foreign companies, with prices ranging from 400 to 600 yuan per liter. Now, domestic culture medium costs only over 20 yuan per liter.

According to an article in the French newspaper Liberation, the prices of innovative drugs launched in China are often much lower than those of similar products in Europe and America. After some cancer treatment options enter the French healthcare system, each patient can save tens of thousands of euros in expenses annually. The New York Times published an article stating that expanding the supply of innovative drugs in China can not only enrich the treatment options for patients worldwide, but also help reduce drug prices. By working together, people can live longer and healthier lives

Transaction data continues to rise and strategic cooperation is intensively implemented. In the wave of China's innovative drugs going global, we see a clear trajectory of the transformation and upgrading of China's biopharmaceutical industry, the strength of China's innovation and long-term efforts, and the responsibility to increase human welfare with high-quality and inclusive pharmaceutical achievements.