China's pharmaceutical industry makes more money than electric vehicles, reaching $136 billion in 2025, causing wails from Western companies!
In 2025, an unexpected turning point emerged: China's biopharmaceutical industry achieved revenue of as high as $136 billion through licensing agreements, surpassing the overseas sales revenue of China's electric vehicle exports during the same period.
This revenue mainly comes from "selling technology." Chinese pharmaceutical companies license the overseas rights of independently developed new drugs or clinical-stage candidate drugs to multinational pharmaceutical companies in mature markets such as Europe, the US, and Japan. In return, China receives upfront payments, milestone payments, and future sales royalties. In 2025 alone, the total upfront payments from such agreements reached at least $7 billion, and the overall transaction volume increased nearly three times year-on-year.
Ten years ago, China's pharmaceutical industry was mainly focused on generic drugs, with almost no innovation drug development. However, since 2015, the situation has started to change. The science and technology innovation board (STAR Market) has provided financing support for biopharmaceutical companies, and a large number of overseas scientists have returned to China to start businesses. As a result, China quickly established a complete innovation chain covering target discovery, preclinical research, clinical trials, and international registration.
Why are Western companies willing to pay a high price for Chinese drugs? The core reasons are threefold: First, China's R&D costs are still significantly lower than those in Europe and the US, with the same preclinical project advancing faster and costing less in China. Second, China has a huge patient base and rich clinical data, especially in certain prevalent cancer types where it possesses globally scarce resources. Third, after years of accumulation, Chinese companies have formed local leading advantages in specific technology platforms.
This trend is reshaping the global pharmaceutical landscape. In the past, the "upstream" of global new drug development was firmly controlled by the US, Europe, and Japan, with China merely being a downstream market. Now, China is evolving from a "follower" into a "source of innovation." According to industry databases, the number of licensing deals made by Chinese pharmaceutical companies in 2025 exceeded Japan for the first time, ranking second globally, just behind the United States.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1853985394926663/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.