China's Pharma Industry Charts Innovation-Driven Future at Landmark Beijing Conference
Key Insights
China approved a record 76 Class-1 innovative drugs and 76 innovative medical devices in 2025, signaling accelerated regulatory reform and innovation momentum.
Beijing's pharmaceutical and health industry surpassed RMB 1.13 trillion in 2025, with the city launching new "32 measures" to support innovative drug development.
The conference unveiled the "Top 10 Innovative Breakthroughs in the Pharmaceutical Industry during the 14th Five-Year Plan" and launched three major platforms including a synthetic biology pilot facility.
China's pharmaceutical industry is entering a new era of innovation-driven growth, as evidenced by record regulatory approvals and expanding international collaboration highlighted at the 43rd National Pharmaceutical Industry Information Annual Conference and the 2026 Beijing · Changping Life Science Forum, which opened on July 12 at Beijing Changping Future Science City (search).
More than 800 participants, including academicians, experts, leaders from national ministries, Beijing Municipality, and Changping District, along with representatives from research institutes, industry associations, pharmaceutical companies, and investment institutions, gathered for the two-day event themed "Explore Life, Create the Future."
Record Innovation Output and Regulatory Momentum
Lei Ping, Member of the Party Leadership Group and Deputy Director of the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), delivered a striking data point: in 2025, China approved 76 Class-1 innovative drugs and 76 innovative medical devices, both setting new historical records. Lei emphasized that the NMPA will continue to deepen review and approval reforms, stimulate endogenous momentum for industrial innovation, and accelerate the R&D and market launch of innovative drugs and devices.
Beijing's position as a national innovation hub was underscored by Sun Shuo, Vice Mayor of Beijing, who reported that the city's pharmaceutical and health industry scale exceeded RMB 1.13 trillion in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 6.5%. The cumulative number of approved innovative medical devices and AI-powered medical devices in Beijing ranked first in China, while the number of launched innovative drugs ranked third nationwide. For three consecutive years, Beijing has issued "32 measures" to support innovative pharmaceutical development.
Changping's Emerging Role as a Biopharma Core
Gan Jingzhong, Secretary of the Changping District Party Committee, highlighted that Changping has gathered more than 2,800 pharmaceutical and health enterprises. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the industry's revenue grew at an average annual rate of 10.8%, fostering emerging hundred-billion-yuan industrial clusters in areas including beauty and health, medical devices, brain science and brain-computer interfaces, cell and gene therapy, and AI+healthcare.
Liu Qiang, Deputy Head of Changping District, detailed the district's industrial spatial layout of "two corridors and one belt," with a total industry scale exceeding RMB 110 billion. The district has built a "1-kilometer high-efficiency achievement commercialization circle" to accelerate translation from research to market.
Major Platforms and Strategic Initiatives Launched
The conference featured the premiere of the "Top 10 Innovative Breakthroughs in the Pharmaceutical Industry during the 14th Five-Year Plan," which systematically summarized landmark achievements including record-high approvals of innovative drugs, accelerated translation of frontier biotechnologies, coordinated domestic and international market efforts, notable progress in traditional Chinese medicine innovation, and in-depth promotion of AI-empowered full-scenario applications.
Simultaneously, the 2026 key actions of the "Global Cooperation and Development Initiative for the Pharmaceutical Industry" were released, laying out six major directions: innovation synergy, digital-intelligent integration, industrial chain linkage, joint standard-setting, green and low-carbon development, and accessibility for people's livelihoods. Eleven representatives from research institutes and leading enterprises jointly launched the initiative.
Three major platforms were also established in Changping: the Beijing Future Science City Synthetic Biology Manufacturing Pilot Platform, the Changping Branch Center of the Beijing Intellectual Property Protection Center, and the Life Science Park Branch Center of the Zhongguancun Intellectual Property Protection Center.
Scientific Thought Leadership
Jiang Jiandong, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and President of the Institute of Materia Medica at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, innovatively proposed a "molecular group" theory for new drug R&D focusing on China's original drugs. Xu Na, Deputy Director of the Department of Medical Services Management at the National Healthcare Security Administration, presented achievements and future plans for supporting innovative drug development through medical insurance. Alessio Mora, a technical officer from the World Health Organization, called on all countries to jointly improve the full-chain support system for chronic disease prevention and treatment.
Multinational Commitment to Beijing
The conference's international dimension was reinforced by earlier high-level engagement. On March 21, Yin Li, Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, met with leaders of multinational pharmaceutical companies and industry associations. Yin noted that Beijing's life expectancy has reached nearly 84 years and the infant mortality rate stands at 1.3‰. He called for deepened collaboration in medical innovation, accelerated translation of scientific achievements, and expanded use of artificial intelligence in drug discovery, clinical trials, and intelligent diagnostics.
Stephen J. Ubl, President and CEO of PhRMA (search); Severin Schwan, Chairman of the Board of Roche; and Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis, expressed strong confidence in Beijing's innovation ecosystem, stating they will further expand investment and business presence in Beijing and deepen cooperation in innovative drug R&D, clinical trials, and digital healthcare.
Industry Leadership and AI Integration
The conference featured roundtable dialogues on full-chain support for innovative drugs and AI-empowered pharmaceutical innovation. Zhang Wei, President of the China Society for Drug Regulation, moderated discussions with leaders including Wang Cunyu of Peking University Advanced Institute of Clinical Medicine, Zhu Yi of Baili Tianheng, and Zhu Hailuan of Sanofi Greater China.
In the CEO keynote session, Shan Guohong, Senior Vice President of BeiGene (search), shared insights on "Deep cultivation of global innovation and full-chain internationalization practices for innovative drugs." Chen Li, Founder and Chairman of Hua Medicine (search), addressed the commercialization path from original first-in-class to market landing.
The conference also released the "2025 Top 100 Chinese Pharmaceutical Industrial Enterprises by Main Business Revenue," the "2026 China Biomedical Innovation Development Index," and the "Full-Life-Cycle Risk Protection Model for Innovative Drugs," collectively painting a picture of an industry undergoing systematic transformation toward innovation-driven, globally integrated growth.