China is aiming to account for at least 25% of first-in-class drugs as part of a five-year push to cement its emerging status as a hotbed for innovative R&D.
The Chinese government set the target in its latest five-year plan for the pharma industry. From 2026 to 2030, the government wants to achieve a leap in the competitiveness and international influence of the industry, Xinhua reported. The state news agency was covering the five-year, Chinese-language plan that the National Medical Products Administration and eight other agencies published on Friday.
Government policy supports China’s first-in-class drug target, which covers active clinical programs and approved products. Under the five-year plan, officials will support drugmakers’ pursuits of new targets, mechanisms and modalities. Major infectious and chronic diseases, plus rare and pediatric conditions, are focus areas for the government.
The first-in-class target is one of 10 objectives established in the report. The government wants China to be among the best in the world in the number of investigational new drugs entering the clinic for the first time and has set R&D investment targets to support its ambitions.
Officials expect the investment to support the rise of major companies and products. By 2030, China’s government wants 50 domestic drugmakers to have at least 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) in annual sales and for five products to be blockbusters globally.
Publication of the five-year plan coincided with a report that the U.S. is considering largely exempting the pharma industry from restrictions on deals with Chinese companies. Under rules being drafted by the Treasury Department, U.S. drugmakers will be allowed to invest in Chinese drug candidates, provided the molecules are unrelated to pathogens or biotechnology that could be weaponized, Reuters reported.
The draft proposals, which could change, could ease industry concerns about the potential for the White House to cut U.S. drugmakers off from a major source of drug candidates. However, some U.S. lawmakers have told Fierce they are concerned about the potential for money from U.S. drugmakers to aid the rise of China’s pharma sector.