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China closes biotech gap with US as new drugs, R&D pipelines top 30% of global total
Published: 3:30pm, 5 Sep 2025
China’s push to become a biotech powerhouse is paying off, with innovative R&D pipelines and newly approved drugs accounting for over 30 per cent of the global total, according to the country’s top economic planner.
The sector was showing strong momentum, said Xiang Libin, deputy chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), who cited the figures at the 17th China Bioindustry Convention in Wuhan, Hubei province, on Thursday.
China’s bioeconomy, encompassing the research, development and application of life sciences and biotechnology, now contributed over 7 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product, Xiang added.
A report released at the conference ranked China second globally in the number of drugs under development, underscoring its progress in closing the gap with the United States.
The national drug and medical device regulator approved 93 new drugs in 2024, the most in five years. Patent applications for medical devices also exceeded 91,500, accounting for 70 per cent of the global total, according to the report.
The NDRC also introduced an “insights system” at the convention to aggregate data across the full R&D, approval and market chain. Officials said it would help the government and industry to identify opportunities and break through bottlenecks in the push for drug innovation.
Beijing has prioritised the bioeconomy as part of its “ high-quality development” strategy, which centres on innovation and technological advancement.
In 2022, it launched a five-year plan for the field, aligned with the country’s broader developmental blueprint. The plan set broad goals for the biopharmaceutical, bio-agriculture and biomanufacturing industries, aiming to rank “firmly among the world’s leading nations” by 2035.
While the US was still the global leader in biotech, Beijing had made significant strides in catching up.
“China has the most immediate opportunity to overtake the United States in biotechnology” across five critical tech sectors, according to the Critical and Emerging Technologies Index published by Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs in June.
The report – which also covers artificial intelligence, semiconductors, space and quantum technology – noted that China’s strengths in biotech lie in its human capital and pharmaceutical manufacturing capabilities, while the US retained an edge in private sector innovation and public-private partnerships.
“The narrow US-China gap suggests that future developments could quickly shift the global balance of power,” the report added. |
