China’s Pharma Dominance Is Just Beginning

The old pharmaceutical order anchored around cutting-edge advances from the West has quietly disappeared. What we have now is a bipolar industry centered on the US and China — with implications for patients and policymakers worldwide.

China has closed the gap on the number of research studies being conducted and, in certain cases, even moved ahead on developing new treatments. Global drugmakers understand this shift very well — having inked hundreds of billions of dollars in deals over the past five years to license promising Chinese innovations for sale overseas to replenish their coffers.