China’s Biotech Boom: Why the Nation Must Collaborate to Stay Ahead

March 18, 2026

The following op-ed was published in Nature on February 12, 2026, and was written by Lizzi C. Lee, Fellow on Chinese Economy at ASPI’s Center for China Analysis (CCA), and Jing Qian, Vice President, Co-Founder, and Managing Director of CCA.

In biomedical science, China still lags behind the United States and Europe when it comes to fundamental research and conducting clinical trials involving investigators and participants from sev-eral countries1. But the nation is now a global leader when it comes to drug development and manufacturing. And it is becoming increasingly important in frontier science.

Industry analysts estimate that China now accounts for 70–95% of the global supply chain for many essential pharmaceutical products, including ibuprofen and paracetamol. In 2024, Chinese biotechnology firms developed more than 1,250 new drugs, surpassing the European Union and approaching the US total of roughly 1,440. In 2018, China conducted only 9% of the clinical trials conducted by companies around the world. Now, it is responsible for about one-fifth of such trials. And in the past few years, it has achieved several therapeutic milestones.

As biotech industry gathers pace, however, so does geopolitical scrutiny.

it was originally republished on the Asia Society Site.

Read the full report here