China declares bid for global drug innovation dominance by 2030

China has announced a national blueprint to shed its long-held identity as a bulk active pharmaceutical ingredient supplier and vast consumer market, declaring its intent to seize global leadership in innovative drug development by 2030.

Building on its quantitative expansion — already ranked No. 1 in the world by research and development pipeline count — Beijing has now proclaimed a bid for qualitative dominance, targeting a 25% share of all first-in-class drugs developed globally using homegrown technology.

According to the Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization's Bio-Economy Research Center, 10 central government ministries including China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly released the "15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) for Pharmaceutical Industry Development" on Friday, with these goals at its core.

The plan calls for cementing a world-leading position in biopharmaceutical R&D and applications from 2026 through 2030, and formally designating the biotech industry as a critical national infrastructure sector intertwined with national security.

The most striking element of the plan is its ambitious numerical targets. Beijing has set a firm goal of capturing more than 25% of all first-in-class drugs developed worldwide by 2030. The government also aims to sustain an average annual growth rate of more than 20% for the innovative drug sector and push the number of new drug approvals into the top tier globally.

Alongside those targets, the plan calls for a significant expansion of the pharmaceutical ecosystem. The combined operating revenue of pharmaceutical companies with annual primary sales of 20 million yuan ($2.98 million) or more is to be raised to over 3.5 trillion yuan, and the number of large pharmaceutical companies with annual sales exceeding 10 billion yuan is to grow to 50.

Particularly notable is the goal of producing at least five blockbuster drugs, each generating more than $1 billion in annual global sales from a single product. On the infrastructure side, the plan calls for building 20 mega pharmaceutical industrial complexes each with production output of 100 billion yuan, mandating that listed pharmaceutical companies invest at least 10% of their sales in R&D, and bringing more than 200 innovative medical devices to market.

To achieve these goals, China will simultaneously pursue 25 key tasks across eight priority areas, including upgrading manufacturing processes through AI and digital transformation, building a precision diagnostics and treatment ecosystem, securing supply chain resilience through self-sufficiency in essential raw materials, and expanding open global cooperation.

Beijing's declaration is more than rhetoric — China's standing in the global pharmaceutical and biotech industry is already backed by hard numbers.

As of late 2025, China had 4,751 innovative drug candidates in development, accounting for one-third of the global total and placing it first in the world by pipeline size. Of the 38 innovative drugs approved in China in the first half of this year, more than 80% — 31 in total — were domestically developed. The value-added output of pharmaceutical companies with annual sales of 20 million yuan or more also rose 6.4% from the same period a year earlier.

China's pharmaceutical and biotech companies this year signed overseas technology licensing deals totaling more than $120 billion, a 36% surge from the previous year. Global big pharma has been aggressively acquiring Chinese antibody-drug conjugates and immuno-oncology drug candidates, underscoring that China has firmly established itself as a global R&D supply hub.

China's drive for biotech dominance is expected to pose a major challenge and source of risk for South Korea's pharmaceutical and biotech industry.

The most immediate concern is the global technology licensing market, a primary revenue model for domestic pharmaceutical and biotech companies. If Chinese biotechs — backed by vast patient pools, enormous capital and rapid clinical timelines — flood the market with drug candidates hitting the same targets at lower prices, Korean companies will find their negotiating leverage with big pharma shrinking fast.

Should China also succeed in developing its own blockbuster drugs and building a self-contained domestic value chain, the barriers facing Korean companies seeking to enter the Chinese market will only grow higher. At the same time, some analysts see a potential silver lining: domestic contract manufacturing organizations could benefit as Chinese contract development and manufacturing companies face headwinds from the US Biosecure Act.

For South Korea's biotech ecosystem to survive China's aggressive push, industry observers say the country must proactively secure capabilities in next-generation treatment modalities that China cannot easily replicate, as well as in identifying first-in-class targets. Beyond differentiating domestic pipelines, experts say this is an urgent moment to overhaul the national-level institutional and financial support framework — from basic research all the way through global clinical trials.