{"id":1547183,"date":"2025-07-15T21:20:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T01:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1547183"},"modified":"2025-07-15T21:20:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T01:20:00","slug":"chinese-biotech-companies-are-catching-up-to-u-s-big-pharma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/chinese-biotech-companies-are-catching-up-to-u-s-big-pharma\/1547183\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Biotech Companies Are Catching Up To U.S. Big Pharma"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden\">Chinese Biotech Companies Are Catching Up To U.S. Big Pharma<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p>China&#8217;s biotechnology sector is rapidly transforming from a follower into a global leader in pharmaceutical innovation, challenging the long-standing dominance of the United States and Europe, according to a new longform writeup by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/features\/2025-07-13\/china-drugmakers-catching-up-to-us-big-pharma-with-new-medicine-innovation\">Bloomberg<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Since regulatory reforms began in 2015, the number of innovative drugs originating from China has surged from just 160 to over 1,250 in 2024, nearly matching the U.S.&#8217;s 1,440. Once known for low-cost generics and quality issues, Chinese drugmakers are now producing cutting-edge therapies that are drawing global recognition and investment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cThe scale itself is not something we\u2019ve seen before,\u201d<\/strong> said Helen Chen, managing partner at LEK Consulting. \u201c<strong>The products are here, they\u2019re attractive and they\u2019re fast.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>China\u2019s progress is not only in volume but also in quality. Regulators such as the U.S. FDA and the European Medicines Agency are increasingly awarding Chinese drugs designations like priority review and breakthrough therapy, once reserved for top-tier Western innovations.<\/p>\n<p>While the absolute number of approvals still trails behind the U.S., the growth trend is unmistakable. \u201cIt wouldn\u2019t be sensationalist to suggest that China will overtake the US in the next few years purely in terms of numbers,\u201d said Daniel Chancellor of Norstella.<\/p>\n<p>A notable example is a blood cancer cell therapy developed by Legend Biotech in China, now marketed globally with Johnson &amp; Johnson, and seen as superior to a U.S.-developed rival.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/chinese%20biotech.jpg?itok=IpMA4PfA\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Bloomberg <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/features\/2025-07-13\/china-drugmakers-catching-up-to-us-big-pharma-with-new-medicine-innovation\">writes<\/a> that global pharmaceutical companies are taking notice. Deals involving Chinese biotech firms are increasing in size and frequency. Summit Therapeutics paid $500 million upfront for rights to a Chinese cancer drug that outperformed Merck\u2019s Keytruda in a local trial.<\/p>\n<p>Pfizer recently set a record with a $1.2 billion upfront payment to 3SBio for a similar therapy. \u201cThey can leapfrog competitors in other countries,\u201d said Andy Liu of Novotech, a clinical research firm.<\/p>\n<p>China\u2019s edge comes from its ability to conduct drug research faster and more cheaply, thanks to its centralized hospital system and large patient base. Early-stage cancer and obesity trials in China can enroll patients in half the time it takes in the U.S. Still, Chinese firms must show their results hold up across diverse populations to gain regulatory approval in the U.S. and Europe.<\/p>\n<p>The innovation surge is being led by both foreign-educated startup founders and legacy firms like Jiangsu Hengrui, which pivoted from generics to R&amp;D after domestic policy changes. From 2020 to 2024, 20 of the world\u2019s top 50 companies for new drug candidates were Chinese, up from just five in the previous five years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we move forward, the fact that there\u2019s high quality innovation in China&#8230; will no longer be a novelty,\u201d said Ali Pashazadeh of Treehill Partners. \u201cIt\u2019ll just be an accepted part of the norm.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, the U.S. sees biotech as part of a broader strategic rivalry. \u201cBiotech is one of the forefronts of the US-China tech rivalry,\u201d said Jack Burnham from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>      <span class=\"field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden\"><a title=\"View user profile.\" href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/users\/tyler-durden\" class=\"username\">Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden\">Tue, 07\/15\/2025 &#8211; 17:20<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u200b<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/markets\/chinese-biotech-companies-are-catching-us-big-pharma\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/markets\/chinese-biotech-companies-are-catching-us-big-pharma<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chinese Biotech Companies Are Catching Up To U.S. Big Pharma China&#8217;s biotechnology sector is rapidly transforming from a follower into a global leader in pharmaceutical&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1547184,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1547183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1547183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1547183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1547183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1547184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1547183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1547183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1547183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}