China wants to capture a quarter of the global innovative drug market by 2030
China has set a goal to raise the share of domestically developed first-in-class drugs to at least 25% of their global total by 2030. Beijing plans to transform the biopharmaceutical sector into one of the new pillars of the economy and significantly strengthen the positions of Chinese companies in the global drug market.
The target is set out in a new five-year plan for the development of the pharmaceutical industry for 2026–2030, jointly prepared by ten Chinese government agencies, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the pharmaceutical regulator NMPA.
At the same time, the 25% figure does not mean that Chinese companies must capture a quarter of the global pharmaceutical market by sales volume. It refers specifically to the share of global drugs in the first-in-class category—drugs that are the first in their class to use a new therapeutic target or mechanism of action.
By the end of the decade, Beijing wants to bring research and practical application of biopharmaceutical technologies to a world-leading position. The authorities are counting on breakthroughs in key technologies, acceleration of the development of original drugs, and deeper integration of Chinese companies into international pharmaceutical chains.
The plan contains a number of specific financial benchmarks. The combined annual revenue of China's large pharmaceutical enterprises should exceed 3.5 trillion yuan—approximately $522 billion. At least 50 pharmaceutical companies must each achieve an annual revenue of more than 10 billion yuan.
The innovative drug sector is expected to grow by more than 20% per year on average. China also plans to have at least five drugs with global sales of over $1 billion per year, and the average R&D intensity of public pharmaceutical companies should exceed 10%.
A separate focus is medical equipment. By 2030, China expects to bring to market more than 200 innovative medical devices and to create 20 large pharmaceutical industrial clusters each with an annual turnover of over 100 billion yuan.
The new plan builds on the rapid growth of China's pharmaceutical industry in recent years. According to Chinese authorities, during the previous five-year plan, 230 innovative drugs and 292 new medical devices entered the market in the country, and the number of experimental drugs in development rose to second place in the world.
In parallel, China is expanding access of innovative drugs to the medical insurance system and accelerating their approval procedures. By 2025, Chinese developments already accounted for about 30% of the global portfolio of biopharmaceutical drugs in development, compared with about 2% ten years ago. In the first half of 2026, the total value of licensing deals for Chinese innovative drugs abroad exceeded $100 billion.
Thus, Beijing is betting not only on increasing domestic production, but also on a transition from predominantly generic pharmaceuticals to its own original developments that can compete for licenses, partnerships, and sales in the largest global markets.
Based on materials from: South China Morning Post, Ministry of Commerce of China, Government of China
