China's Biotech Industry

HONG KONG, March 13 (Reuters) - China's drug regulator said on Friday that it has given the nod for a brain-computer interface (BCI) system that helps restore hand-movement ability to be sold, the world's first approval of ‌a BCI device for commercial use.
• The device is made by Borui Kang Medical Technology (Shanghai) and its tech aims to restore movement and communication to humans suffering from different forms of paralysis.
• It is designed for patients with quadriplegia caused by cervical spinal cord injuries, helping them regain ⁠hand‑grasping ability via a glove.
• The product is an invasive BCI system, which means electrodes are inserted directly into the brain, instead of sitting on the surface of the brain. The device uses minimally invasive extradural implantation, relying on wireless technology.
• The National Medical Products Administration said BCI products like the one approved on Friday have been prioritised, noting the sector has been designated a "future industry" in Beijing's latest five-year plan released last week.
• China could see ‌brain-computer ⁠interface (BCI) technology move into practical public use within three to five years as products mature, a

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last week, as Beijing races to catch up with U.S. startups including Elon Musk's Neuralink.
• Eligible patients for the product must be ⁠aged 18 to 60 and suffer from a specific kind of spinal cord injury. Their diagnosis must be at least a year old, and they must be in a ⁠stable condition for six months following standard treatment. Patients must be unable to grasp with their hands but retain some upper‑arm function.

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Of particular note, Chinese universities and public institutions have filed more cultivated meat patents than their counterparts in the U.S. and Europe combined, which suggests an intentionally collaborative domestic strategy designed to build a national ecosystem.

Last November, Yichang-based food manufacturer Angel Yeast — which makes

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of all the yeast in Chinese buns and breads — opened a

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the size of 75 football fields. The facility now pumps out more than 11,000 metric tons annually of what the company calls “new proteins,” each produced via

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in a matter of hours. The resulting ingredient is 50% cheaper than whey protein, provides all nine essential amino acids needed by the human body and can be incorporated into everything from plant-based meat to protein bars to baked goods.

Amid surging domestic and global demand, company representatives told me they will soon break ground on a second protein factory right behind the first, which will increase the complex’s annual output to more than 30,000 metric tons — roughly comparable to an average American slaughterhouse. The company sees the factory as a template it can replicate in many of the 170 countries it operates in.

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Autologous and allogeneic stem cell-derived islet therapy in three recipients with type 1 diabetes and complete loss of endogenous pancreatic β-cell function pretransplant​

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The blockbuster weight loss drug sold as Ozempic and Wegovy will soon go generic in countries that are home to 40 percent of the world’s population, significantly lowering the price of a costly medicine that had been largely unaffordable to nearly all but the wealthiest people.

On Saturday, Novo Nordisk, the company that until now has had a monopoly on selling the drug, will lose patent protection in several of the world’s most populous countries. The first generic versions are expected to arrive in India as soon as this weekend. In the coming months, the generics are also expected to become available in China, Canada, Brazil, Turkey and South Africa. “The availability of these drugs, which have been restricted to high-income countries to very wealthy people, will now be democratized by the generics,” said Leena Menghaney, an activist in New Delhi focused on treatment access.

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• What is left atrial appendage (LAA) closure:

• Summary of China's innovation:

• Detailed description:

• The article published on Nature:

This paper examines China's transition from pharmaceutical "free rider" to global innovator over the last decade. In 2010, China accounted for less than 8% of global clinical trials; by 2020, it had surpassed the US in annual registered clinical trial volume. To study this transformation, we compile a comprehensive, synchronized database spanning the pharmaceutical drug development supply chain, covering scientific publications, clinical trials, drug development milestones for China, the U.S., and Europe, alongside drug sales and government policies over the same period. We provide strong evidence that China's rise was primarily driven by the National Reimbursement Drug List (NRDL) reform, which dramatically expanded the effective market size for innovative drugs. We document a sharp rise in both the quantity (86% increase) and novelty of drug trials post reform, with growth concentrated in reform-exposed disease categories, first-or best-in-class drugs, and among domestic firms. A decomposition exercise reveals that the NRDL reform accounts for 43% of the growth in oncology trial activity, nearly doubling the combined contribution of upstream knowledge accumulation and talent flows (24%), while other government policies play a minor role. Finally, dynamic gains from induced innovation exceed the reform's static gains in consumer access to innovative drugs by threefold, underscoring the importance of accounting for the reform's long-run effects on innovation incentives in addition to near-term improvements in drug affordability.

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Biopharmaceutical innovation is increasingly viewed as a source of national economic and strategic advantage, prompting public investment in domestic drug research and development.

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At the same time, large pharmaceutical firms now perform a shrinking share of research and development in-house, relying more on external start-ups, academic spin-offs, and cross-border collaborations.

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As a result, the geography of scientific discovery increasingly diverges from the geography of drug marketing, limiting the ability of analyses focused on approved products to capture where innovation originates. A growing literature documents growth in China’s biopharmaceutical sector using downstream indicators such as licensing activity or regulatory approvals.

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However, these country-specific analyses may not fully capture relative global shifts in innovation distribution or the geographic origins of early-stage drug development, despite its critical role in shaping future approvals and investment. This study examines changes from 2015 through 2025 in the country of origin of early-stage biopharmaceutical development programs worldwide.

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reached a record transaction value of US$60 billion in the first quarter of 2026, driven by multinational pharmaceutical companies’ growing appetite for the country’s promising drug candidates. The deal value represented a 73 per cent jump from the same period a year earlier, and accounted for nearly half of the total US$135.7 billion worth of agreements signed throughout 2025, the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) said in a statement on Saturday.

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– novel medicines targeting unmet medical needs, including new chemical entities and advanced biologics – were expected to grow at an annualised pace of 20 per cent between 2026 and 2030 in mainland China, before slowing to 8.8 per cent from 2030 to 2040, according to Chen Chen, head of China healthcare research at UBS.

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Wrought said:

International licensing deals rose to a record high of $60 billion in Q12026.

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