Innovation puts pharma sector in global league

Similar efforts can be seen at Hangzhou, Zhejiang-based medical device company Venus Medtech. The company reported 210 million yuan in sales revenue in the first half of the year, up 19 percent year-on-year. Overseas sales alone were worth 14 million yuan, surging 151 percent year-on-year.

The first Chinese-made transcatheter pulmonic valve replacement system approved for marketing in Europe, independently developed by the company for the treatment of certain heart valve disease, generated 9 million yuan in sales in only two months after its registration earlier this year.

Wu Yangfeng, executive vice-president of the Peking University Clinical Research Institute, said China's pharmaceutical industrial chain has been undergoing fundamental upgrades in recent years, as the country has ushered in a series of regulatory reforms in the sector since 2015.

"The new medical product review standards and methodologies in China have been internationalized very quickly, as reflected by the rapid improvements in the quantity and quality of new medical product approvals," Wu said, adding this trend has spurred the quality and quantity of clinical trials in China.

In the sector of pharmaceutical R&D and manufacturing services, Chinese enterprises have already taken a leading position in the world, said Wang Rui, vice-president of sales and marketing of Porton.

"There is a very obvious trend in the sector that global demand for pharmaceutical R&D and manufacturing services is looking to China for solutions, thanks to Chinese CDMOs' advantages in cost and efficiency," he said, adding that the company has been pushing for upgrades in its capacity and core capabilities from biocatalysis to digitization. Biocatalysis is a process in which a biological material is used to speed up, or catalyze, a chemical reaction.

"China has a large population of high-end talent and a vast domestic market. Together with the drug regulatory reforms, those factors have been fueling the rapid growth of the country's innovative medicine industry, lifting the country's share in global innovative drug pipelines from a very low base five to six years ago to more than 10 percent by now," he said.

"China is sure to make more contributions to world pharmaceutical industry as the Chinese innovation and manufacturing forces in the sector continue to expand."

However, experts also said Chinese pharmaceutical companies still need to strengthen R&D and innovation capabilities if they want to further increase their presence in global markets, especially in developed economies.

Researcher Chen of Renmin University said Chinese enterprises must become more alert to variations in regulatory environments in different countries. The best way for them to increase their global presence is to continually improve their product and service quality.