The State Council deliberated and approved the "Implementation Plan for Supporting the Development of Innovative Drugs in the Whole Chain", and the draft for comments that had been circulated on the Internet for nearly 4 months has finally landed, from review and approval, access, use to capital support, especially the whole chain support for innovative drugs such as international pricing and basic medical insurance expenditures will soon become a reality, and the official document shall prevail.
What is the status of mainland innovative drug R&D in the world?
According to the latest data from Citeline (as of January 2, 2024), this article provides a glimpse of China's global pharmaceutical R&D status.
01
globe
As of January 2, 2024, the total number of drugs in development worldwide is 22,825, an increase of 1,533 from the previous year (2023), an increase of 16,830 from 5,995 in 2001, and an increase of 1.8 times in 23 years.
The growth rate in 2024 is similar to the average growth rate of the past five years (7.14%), of which the number of phase I clinical drugs has the fastest growth of 13.5%, and the phase III clinical trial is relatively stable.
The number of companies with active pipelines in 2024 is 6,124, an increase of 424 or 7.4% from the previous year (2023), an increase of 4,926 from 1,198 in 2021, and a threefold increase in 23 years.
02
The number of new drug companies under development: second in China
As of January 2024, the number of new drug R&D companies in mainland China accounted for 16% of the world's total, ranking second in the world, an increase of 3 percentage points from last year (2023) and the year before (2022), respectively.
The United States still ranks first, accounting for 39% in January 2024, but it has been declining in recent years, down 4 and 5 percentage points from last year (2023) and the year before (2022), respectively. Global pharmaceutical giants such as Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, AbbVie, Eli Lilly, Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead, Celgene, and Biogen have made the United States a global leader in pharmaceutical innovation and scale.
The "Rest of Europe" excluding the UK, France and Germany came in third, up 2 percentage points to 15% from two years ago.
The proportion of Britain, Japan, France and Germany has not changed in recent years, and they are currently ranked 5~9 respectively.
Canada is down 1 percentage point from the previous year and is now in 6th place.
03
The number of new drugs under development: second in China
China also ranks second in the number of new drug R&D (6,098), second only to the United States (11,200). Taiwan, China, ranked 21st with 1,362.
Our neighbors, South Korea (3,233) and Japan (2,041), ranked 3rd and 10th, respectively.
The United Kingdom (3,156), Germany (2,479), Canada (2,387), Australia (2,372) and France (2,363) ranked 3~8 respectively. The world's pharmaceutical giants such as GSK and AstraZeneca in the United Kingdom, Bayer, Merck, Boehringer Ingelheim and Fresenius Kabi in Germany, and Sanofi and Servier in France enjoy a high reputation in the mainland.
Spain (2,259), the Netherlands (1,850) and Italy (1,823) ranked 9th, 11th and 12th respectively.
04
Top 25 enterprises: 4 in China, Hengrui ranks among the top 8
As of January 2, 2024, there are 25 companies with > 70 drug pipelines in the world. There are 4 in China, and Hengrui ranks among the top 10 for the first time, ranking 8th, with 147 pipeline drugs, of which 138 are independently developed, which is the largest number of independent research and development drugs in the world. China Biopharmaceutical, Fosun Pharma and CSPC Pharmaceutical Group ranked 15th, 17th and 24th respectively, with 103, 90 and 73 pipeline drugs respectively.
The companies with the largest pipeline drugs in the world are Roche (218), Pfizer (205), AstraZeneca (166), Eli Lilly (159), Squibb (158), etc.
Compared to the previous year (2023), 12 of the top 25 companies increased, 3 remained unchanged, and 10 declined. Among them, the top three fastest-growing companies are all Chinese, namely China Biopharma (+72%), Fosun Pharma (+41%) and Hengrui (+39%), with 43, 26 and 41 pipelines added from the previous year (2023), respectively. CSPC ranked 11th, up 7% year-on-year, adding 5 pipes of drugs.
Among foreign companies, the fastest growth was Astellas (+24%) and Pfizer (+20%), and the fastest declines were Takeda (-27%), Novartis (-19%), Squibb (-10%), AbbVie (-9%), and Merck (-4).
Although the number of pipelines does not represent the quality, the development momentum and effectiveness of innovative drugs in mainland China in recent years are obvious to all.
With the approval of the "Implementation Plan for Supporting the Development of Innovative Drugs in the Whole Chain" by the State Council, innovative drugs in mainland China will enter the track of high-quality and rapid development.
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