By Ward Capoen
The boom in Chinese biopharma has been explosive. Gone are the days of China’s ‘me-too’ drugs — the country is no longer a fast follower, but instead a global leader in biopharmaceutical innovation.
This evolution is reflected in the raw numbers comparing the long-standing industries in Europe and the Unites States with the burgeoning biopharma landscape in China. In sheer number of biotech companies, Europe currently has about 3,700, the US has 4,000, and China beats them both with a whopping 5,000 biotechs.
These numbers aren’t just based on the larger overall population either: there are over 1,700 biomedical companies just in Zhangjiang Science City — China’s ‘Pharma Valley’ in Shanghai — including major operations of big pharma companies Boehringer Ingelheim, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Roche, Eli Lilly, Novartis, GSK, and Johnson & Johnson.
Currently, 46% of the world’s new drug candidates entering the clinic are coming from Chinese companies, a stark increase from 17% a mere decade ago. China’s number of new innovative drugs rose from 350 in 2015 to 1,250 in 2024 — more than the total European output, and on par with the US, which launched 1,440 innovative drugs in the same period. What’s more: these drugs are increasingly first-in-class and/or best-in-class.
Chinese companies are particularly dominant in cancer indications, where they are responsible for the development of about 70% of the world’s new antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), and about 60% of bispecific antibodies — widely considered the next big wave in targeted immunotherapy.
A great example is Akeso’s bispecific antibody Ivonescimab — a next-gen checkpoint therapy targeting both PD-1 and VEGF — which was first tested in China, before being partnered with Summit Therapeutics for US clinical trials in lung cancer. It is the first drug to achieve clinically meaningful results in a toe-to-toe comparison with Pembrolizumab (brand name Keytruda) — a PD-1 inhibitor, which is currently the first-line treatment for many cancers. This drug and others like it mark a potential paradigm shift for cancer treatments towards smarter immunotherapies, with many originating in China.
This rise in Chinese biopharma feels like an overnight success, but it has been a decade in the making.
In 2015, China included biotech in its 10-year policy goals and has since followed through on many of the plans. Among the promises were frameworks for faster clinical trials and trial reviews (now completed within 30 days), and development of more innovative medicines, combined with expanded access and improved reimbursement in the local market.
China now accounts for 39% of global clinical trials and touts a 50-70% faster execution rate compared to just a few years ago. China also decided to align its trial standards with international regulatory bodies like the FDA and EMA. This meant Chinese sites and data can be included more easily in global trials and in international regulatory filings.
This alignment is a major contributing factor to the flurry of Chinese licensing deals we have seen over the last 18 months. In 2025, 32% of global biopharma out-licensing deals originated in China. Overall, China now accounts for about half of all global licensing deals if measured by dollar value, or 26% if measured by deal volume.
As is often the case, the EU has been hit harder by this competition than the US. In economic terms, the biopharma industry is very important to the EU. According to the Draghi report, pharmaceuticals account for 5% of manufacturing value — and for countries that specialize in this industry, like Belgium and Denmark, this figure was as high as 20% in 2020. Pharmaceuticals represent almost 11% of EU exports and the industry provides about 1 million people with jobs.
The sudden entrance of a third mature player in the global biopharma ecosystem means that the EU’s relative slice of the pie will shrink. However, with the maturation of the Chinese market, the global size of the pie is growing, providing opportunities for EU companies. To be able to grab them, the EU needs to reform and improve its industry to remain competitive.
No single measure will turn the tide on its own. According to the Draghi report, action is needed on multiple fronts:
EMA approval times are now 50% longer than in the other regions, and 27 different procedures for pricing and reimbursement in different countries present a significant hurdle for companies, especially for smaller biotechs.
Although some measures have already been taken to reduce these regulatory hurdles (for example, the CTIS reform aiming to accelerate clinical trial regulations), the results have so far not been overwhelmingly positive. But there is hope!
The good news is that it’s never too late to start working on progress. Europe has a solid scientific foundation to build upon: in terms of academic research, the EU still ranks in the global elite. The EU publishes more papers than even the US, and great strides have been made towards translating that research into spin-offs and tangible health solutions.
The European biopharma industry has been raising the alarm, but people are listening — from clusters to policymakers and investors, momentum is building. The recent launch of the European Life Sciences Coalition is a perfect example of an initiative aiming to improve financing options for European biotechs. Clear, concerted efforts are also underway to harmonize markets, regulations, and reimbursement policies across member states, for example with the recent MDR and IVDR revisions, which bode well for European medtech innovation.
Europeans are more aligned than even in their need to work together to cross this chasm and improve the competitiveness of the local biopharma industry. Given recent geopolitical events — such as the COVID-19, the war in Ukraine, and the second Trump administration — it feels like a new dawn is upon us. An era where Europe is less concerned about overregulation, and more focused on efficient, excellent health innovation that is able to hold its own on the world stage.
