China's Innovative Drug Going Global Accelerates Again: Outbound Licensing Exceeds $120 Billion This Year
en.Wedoany.com Reported - Since the beginning of this year, the pace of Chinese innovative drugs going global has accelerated again, with the total value of outbound licensing deals exceeding $120 billion, a year-on-year increase of 36%. Among this, upfront payments exceeded $10 billion. The market simultaneously shows the characteristics of steady growth in the average value per deal, increases in both the amount and proportion of upfront payments, and frequent landing of large deals, demonstrating the continuously rising value of locally developed innovative drugs.
These figures were released by the National Medical Products Administration at the launch ceremony of the 2026 National Drug Safety Publicity Week held on the 14th. A relevant official of the National Medical Products Administration introduced that in recent years, the National Medical Products Administration has continued to deepen regulatory reform, promoting the transformation of the pharmaceutical industry from "quantitative growth" to "qualitative leap," and unleashing the vitality of pharmaceutical innovation across the entire chain.
At present, China's innovative drug research and development ranks among the world's forefront. The National Medical Products Administration has continuously optimized the review and approval mechanism for innovative drug clinical trials, focusing on shortening review timelines and improving clinical trial efficiency. In 2025, more than 2,900 new drug clinical trials were registered nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 18%, setting a new record in scale; research and development activity in frontier fields is prominent, with the number of clinical trials for cell and gene therapy drugs increasing by about 30% annually. China has become a new highland for global new drug clinical trials.
With the deepening of the reform of the review and approval system, pharmaceutical innovation achievements continue to emerge. Since the beginning of this year, 59 innovative drugs and 51 innovative medical devices have been approved for marketing, of which 13 are first-in-class drugs with new mechanisms and new targets; a number of blockbuster products with fully independent intellectual property rights have achieved "global debut," and dozens of pediatric drugs and drugs for rare diseases have been accelerated to market, further meeting the medication needs of the people. The "Spring Rain Action" for the transformation of clinical innovation achievements in medical devices has been steadily advanced, and the world's first implantable brain-computer interface hand motor function compensation system was successfully launched.
While "going global," "bringing in" is also showing a positive trend. Several multinational pharmaceutical companies have increased their investment in China, building new and expanding research and development centers and production bases, resolutely casting a vote of confidence in China's pharmaceutical innovation environment.
A relevant official of the National Medical Products Administration stated that the National Medical Products Administration will further improve the early-stage research and development communication mechanism, implementing "early intervention, one enterprise one policy, full-process guidance, and research-review linkage" for key products; implement the drug trial data protection system, improve the "three-combination" review system for traditional Chinese medicine, accelerate the market launch process of clinically urgently needed products, smooth the green channel for priority testing, and inject lasting momentum into pharmaceutical innovation and research and development.
