Wen Hui Bao: The scale of Shanghai's biopharmaceutical industry is expected to exceed one trillion yuan this year

Full chain escort reduces the burden on innovative drug research and development

Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Center Customs - the only subordinate customs in China that mainly serves science and technology innovation enterprises. At the 2025 Shanghai International Symposium on Biotechnology and Medicine, the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Center Customs shared their exploration of supporting cross-border research and development in biomedicine, demonstrating to the world China's firm steps in empowering industrial development through institutional openness.
The reporter recently learned from Shanghai Customs that the scale of Shanghai's biopharmaceutical industry is expected to exceed one trillion yuan this year.

The "15th Five Year Plan" proposal adopted at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee proposed that Chinese path to modernization should be supported by scientific and technological modernization. Seize the historical opportunity of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, coordinate the construction of a strong education country, a strong science and technology country, and a strong talent country, enhance the overall efficiency of the national innovation system, comprehensively enhance independent innovation capabilities, seize the high ground of scientific and technological development, and continuously stimulate new quality productivity.

Shanghai is building a world-class innovation hub for biomedicine. To this end, the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Center Customs has explored a policy combination of "reducing costs, improving speed, strengthening protection, and breaking barriers", providing strong support for seizing the high ground of biopharmaceutical technology and promoting new quality productivity through the "full chain" of innovation.

Reduce costs and increase speed

Biopharmaceutical research and development requires high investment, long cycles, and cost reduction as the core considerations for sustained innovation in enterprises. In this context, the import tax policy of customs supporting technological innovation provides "real gold and silver" support.

The relevant person in charge of Roche R&D (China) Co., Ltd. said, "With the guidance of customs, since the 14th Five Year Plan, the company has reduced taxes by about 20 million yuan, effectively reducing research and development costs and significantly enhancing market competitiveness

The Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Center Customs focuses on the forefront of the biopharmaceutical industry and has submitted 7 tax research suggestions related to biopharmaceuticals and medical devices to the State Council Tariff Commission, which have been adopted. For example, cobalt chromium molybdenum alloy rods for surgical implantation, nickel titanium alloy wires for surgical implantation, virus carriers for CAR-T cell therapy drug production, etc. Taking the CAR-T key raw material virus vector as an example, the import tariff rate for this product has been reduced from 3% to zero since January 1st this year.

For biopharmaceutical research and development supplies, especially special items required for cell therapy, time is life. Recently, the first CAR-T cell therapy raw material (autologous leukocyte collection) from a Macau patient in China arrived in Shanghai. The Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Center Customs immediately launched a "one-stop" process, conducting inspections in the cold storage to ensure cell viability and achieve rapid release.

This is thanks to the two platforms built online and offline for this level. Offline, relying on the Zhangjiang Cross border Science and Technology Innovation Regulatory Service Center, to achieve direct distribution to Zhangjiang; Online, develop a "Science and Technology Innovation Integrated Information Management Service Platform" to achieve priority appointment and inspection at airport ports.

This mechanism has shown significant effectiveness in supporting the cell therapy industry.

Since the beginning of this year, the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Center Customs has ensured the rapid clearance of three batches of autologous leukocyte apheresis. Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Center Customs actively provides advanced services, providing important guarantees for efficient customs clearance for enterprises and strong support for our smooth export, "said Zheng Yue, Senior Director of Customs Affairs and International Supply Chain at Fosun Carey (Shanghai) Biotechnology Co., Ltd.

Strong protection to break down barriers

With the acceleration of the launch of local innovative drugs in Shanghai, enterprises are increasingly demanding full chain protection of intellectual property rights.

The Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Center Customs has taken the lead in establishing the country's first customs protection center for intellectual property rights of science and technology innovation enterprises, providing full process services such as filing, counseling, and rights protection for emerging fields such as biomedicine. This year, the customs jointly issued the "Cross border Intellectual Property Service Measures for Science and Technology Innovation Enterprises" with the Pudong New Area Intellectual Property Bureau, providing "closed-loop" services such as filing guidance and response to infringement for enterprises with independent intellectual property advantages.

If intellectual property protection is to build a "moat" for Chinese new drugs, then breaking down foreign technical trade barriers (TBT) is to pave the "fast lane" for enterprises to go global.

Last year, the only national level technical trade measures research and evaluation platform in the field of biomedicine in China, the (Shanghai) Biomedical Technical Trade Measures Research and Evaluation Base, was established. At present, the base is moving from building a framework to strong functionality.

The base plays the role of a 'wall breaking pioneer'.

In the first nine months of this year, the base has conducted evaluations on 54 TBT/SPS notifications related to biomedicine, and the evaluation opinions have received targeted responses from Ukraine, Australia, South Korea, and Japan. Among them, one notification in Ukraine was revised due to the adoption of our opinions, effectively safeguarding the interests of the domestic industry.

On this basis, the base has established a full process mechanism of "tracking research risk assessment warning release", timely issuing warnings of changes in regulatory rules in various countries, and helping enterprises avoid risks. At present, the base has initiated the construction of a global knowledge base for biopharmaceutical regulations, and will provide precise compliance guidance for enterprises through training, consulting, seminars, and other forms in the future.