China's biotech industry output to exceed $1.21t by 2020

BEIJING - The output of China's biotechnology industry will rise to 8 to 10 trillion yuan ($1.21 to $1.51 trillion) by 2020, according to a report.

The added value of the biotech industry will account for over 4 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) by 2020, said the report jointly published by the social development department of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the China National Center for Biotechnology Development.

As one of the most dynamic and influential industries in the 21st century, the biotech industry has become a major emerging sector of strategic importance in China, said the report.

The country is either leading the world or comparable with developed countries in some biotech fields, including super hybrid rice breeding technology and application, transgenic plant research and animal somatic cell cloning.

It is in a leading position in genetic testing. The discovery of artemisinin by Chinese pharmaceutical chemist Tu Youyou won her the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine together with William C. Campbell and Satoshi Omura in 2015. Tu became the first Chinese national to win a Nobel Prize in science. China also tops the world in the output of bio-fermented products. Biofuels have replaced the fossil fuel equivalent of over 33 million tons of standard coal every year, according to the report.

China's biotech product exports are rapidly increasing in volume and are being optimized in structure. Its pharmaceutical exports are shifting from active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) to preparations, said the report.