China is looking at ways to eradicate bottlenecks in drug development

China has long been furthering its ambitions to become a key player within the pharmaceutical industry. Despite a number of acquisitions and long-term investments, traditional bottlenecks remain within the development of drug which are delayed when entering the Chinese drug market.

Compulsory clinical trials of all developed drugs entering China has seen the country approve just over 100 new drugs in the last five years, which has been reported as a third of drugs within developed markets. It can take up to 7-8 years for overseas drugs to therefore enter the Chinese market.

The government is now looking at ways in which to support the growing industry, counteract high medicine costs and support its growing population by overhauling this traditional practice.

Beijing has recently stated that overhauling the ban on data from overseas clinical trials will further support the development of drugs in the country and see the rise of new treatments to support patients, reduce delays in treatment, increase potential revenue and further the country’s opportunities within the pharmaceutical sector amidst growing competition globally.

Related stories

• Fosun is set to extend its reach in new deal with Gland Pharma
• Takeda looks to further its investment in its European operations
• Taiba Hospital: Patient care with promise

“Overall, China’s support for scientific innovation with drugs and medical devices is lacking, and the quality of products on the market still falls short of top international levels,” China’s draft proposals have said.

“We must therefore speed up the examination and approval of urgently needed drugs and medical devices.”

Shares in Chinese drug makers rose upon the news announcement by over 6%.

Additionally, Bloomberg recently reported that the country will also be working on strengthening its hold on protecting its medical intellectual property to ensure that the changes do not affects its ongoing competitiveness in the market. The government has consequently stated that it will also look at implementing a new system which will connect drug approvals to patent status to further its ambitions in this space.