What’s new: Some local governments across China, now including Beijing, have issued policies aimed at boosting the biopharmaceutical industry, including more financing support for innovative drugmakers, as the industry endures a prolonged capital winter.
On Sunday, the capital’s authorities announced measures to support the development of innovative drugs, including efforts to improve the quality and efficiency of clinical studies on such drugs and accelerate their approval.
They also plan to step up investment and financing support for innovative drugmakers, setting a target of helping 10 companies go public this year and providing venture capital for startups. The measures are open for public comment until Tuesday.
In South China’s Guangdong province, the city of Zhuhai and a district in provincial capital Guangzhou recently announced similar measures, including grants of up to 100 million yuan ($13.8 million) a year for each eligible drug developer in clinical R&D and help in expanding their overseas operations.
The background: The moves come as investment in China’s drugmakers has waned, mirroring a wider pullback by investors amid a slump in the country’s stock market. Over the past three years, Chinese pharmaceutical shares have lost $600 billion in market value.
After reaching a combined $17.2 billion in 2018 and 2019, early-stage venture capital and private equity investment in China’s biopharmaceutical sector plummeted to $4.5 billion from January 2022 through September 2023, according to Bi Jingquan, executive vice chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.
Han Wei contributed to the story.
Contact reporter Wang Xintong (xintongwang@caixin.com) and editor Jonathan Breen (jonathanbreen@caixin.com)
