Healthcare market File photo: VCG
At the China Development Forum 2025 (CDF), which concluded on Monday, multinational pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly, reaffirmed their confidence in investing in China. This is the latest sign of global healthcare giants doubling down on the market in recent years.
Experts noted on Monday that these foreign companies are drawn not only by China's vast market potential but also by its crucial role in helping them maintain a competitive edge globally.
AstraZeneca signed a landmark agreement on Friday to invest $2.5 billion in Beijing over the next five years, including the establishment of a global strategic research and development (R&D) center in the city.
In a note the company sent to the Global Times on Monday, Pascal Soriot, CEO of the British pharmaceutical giant, said that for more than three decades, he has witnessed China's rise as a global leader in life sciences.
"As the company supports the Healthy China 2030 initiative, AstraZeneca has no doubt China will consolidate its position as a global scientific powerhouse and China is home to one of AstraZeneca's Global R&D Centers, where our researchers in Shanghai are spearheading 20 global clinical trials and advancing more than 200 pipeline projects," Soriot said, adding that the company is also working with multiple Chinese biotech companies on various projects.
US pharma major Eli Lilly on Saturday announced the official operation of an innovation incubator in Beijing called Lilly Gateway Laboratory, the fourth such institution of the company and its first such platform outside the US, to foster innovation.
At the forum, Eli Lilly CEO David A. Ricks expressed hope that Eli Lilly would become a key partner and integral part of China's efforts to address demographic challenges. The company has 35 years of experience in tackling Alzheimer's disease.
Over the past two years, many multinational pharmaceutical companies, including US-based Merck and Pfizer, Japan-based Takeda, Switzerland-based Roche and UK-based GSK, have forged partnerships with Chinese pharmaceutical firms, with deal values repeatedly reaching new highs, the Shanghai Securities News reported in December 2024.
China has the world's largest population base, and as household incomes continue to rise, consumption patterns are steadily upgrading. Meanwhile, the country's rapidly expanding silver economy presents multinational drugmakers with promising medium- to long-term growth opportunities, Hu Qimu, a deputy secretary-general of the digital-real economies integration Forum 50, told the Global Times on Monday.
China has introduced policies in recent years to encourage pharmaceutical innovation. Chinese companies are making steady advances in biopharmaceutical research, while a growing pool of talent is providing strong support for multinational drugmakers conducting R&D and manufacturing in the country, Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday.
"Moreover, for multinational pharmaceutical companies, China is not just a vast market but a key part of their global innovation networks. With abundant clinical resources, a large patient base and rising biopharmaceutical manufacturing capabilities, China is playing an increasingly vital role in their global strategies, serving as a gateway to Asia and beyond," Wang said.
China's pharmaceutical industry has made significant strides in innovation, now ranking second globally in new drug development. A report released at the China Pharmaceutical Industry Development Conference 2024 last November showed that since the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) began, 113 domestically developed innovative drugs had been approved - 2.8 times the number in the previous five-year period - pushing the market size to 100 billion yuan ($13.79 billion), the People's Daily reported.
