Frost & Sullivan, in collaboration with Cytiva, has released the 'Blue Book on the Outbound Trend of Biopharmaceuticals in China 2025'

With the gradual implementation and deepening of the 'Made in China 2025' strategy, China's manufacturing industry has achieved a qualitative leap in innovation strength, fundamentally consolidating the core competitiveness of manufacturing enterprises. In recent years, as domestic market demand growth has slowed down, export-oriented markets have shown a unilateral strengthening trend. Against this backdrop, manufacturing enterprises are more likely to gain significant opportunities and growth space in the international market, known as the so-called 'beta market'. Among many overseas markets, small household appliances, consumer electronics, and the automotive industry are particularly prominent. The common secret behind these industries' excellent performance in overseas markets lies in their comprehensive enhancement of product power, brand power, and channel power.

The 'Blue Book' points out that Chinese biopharmaceutical companies are also adopting internationalization as a strategic choice to break through growth bottlenecks, echoing the experience of mature overseas industries such as consumer electronics and new energy equipment. Product strength, brand power, and channel capability are also the three core elements driving the globalization of Chinese biopharmaceuticals globally.For more information, please refer to the full report..

For a long time, benefiting from strong domestic clinical demand and continuous innovation in biotechnology iterations, the Chinese biopharmaceutical market has maintained double-digit growth above the industry average, becoming the world's second-largest biopharmaceutical market. It is expected to exceed the $100 billion mark by 2026, growing to $103.4 billion and reaching $162.8 billion by 2030. In this process, going global not only provides Chinese biopharmaceutical companies with more than four times the market space but also brings about a comprehensive improvement in cash flow, global channels, brand influence, and corporate valuation, further consolidating China's competitive position in the global biopharmaceutical field.

Internally, innovation capability is the core competitiveness for Chinese biopharmaceuticals to go global. The number of FIC (First-in-Class Innovations) in their pipeline has increased, and their global recognition has risen. Enterprises with innovation advantages can participate in global competition and gain market share by offering high-value-added innovative products and better clinical efficacy. However, Chinese biopharmaceuticals face issues such as tightened financing in the primary market, pressure on medical insurance, immature commercial insurance, and an imperfect payment system. Moreover, after entering the medical insurance catalog, significant price cuts compress profit margins. With the advancement of centralized procurement, the growth space in the domestic market has narrowed, making going global the only way to break through bottlenecks. At the same time, national policies encourage enterprises, and the addition of international standards, associations, and organizations creates a favorable environment for companies going global.

Externally, developed overseas markets offer high product pricing and a complete payment system, which can bring premium margins to Chinese biopharmaceutical companies, enhancing profitability and international brand influence; emerging markets, on the other hand, have become a powerful supplement to developed markets due to their flexible overseas entry models, large population bases, and growing healthcare needs.

In recent years, China has rapidly risen in the global biopharmaceutical CDMO field and gradually occupied a more important position. The foundation of internationalization stems from the abundant production capacity, overseas manufacturing bases, and quality systems that Chinese CDMO enterprises have accumulated in this field, driving a gradual shift of the global biopharmaceutical R&D and production outsourcing industry chain towards China. The importance of expanding overseas markets for the development of Chinese biopharmaceutical CDMO has been recognized by many pioneering enterprises that have achieved phased results in the global market and are striving towards deeper globalization.For more information, please refer to the full report..

The 'Blue Book' uses a nautical chart-like perspective to decode the current situation and evolving trends of four core shipping lanes: independent overseas operations, license-out, Newco, and mergers and acquisitions. It also explores the important role that CDMO companies play in helping Chinese biopharmaceutical enterprises anchor their overseas markets while absorbing global orders.

Chinese domestic pharmaceutical companies have adopted the 'global R&D route', independently building international market access for biopharmaceuticals through overseas clinical trials, international registration and certification. In addition to clinical validation, companies are further strengthening their overseas commercialization and localization production, deepening their efforts in going global. Currently, BeiGene's Tislelizumab has successfully become one of the biopharmaceutical products that have adopted a full-chain 'independent' approach from international clinical development, global registration and application to overseas market commercialization and production. With the increasingly perfecting ecosystem of 'overseas clinical-production and commercialization networks', more resource-rich leading pharmaceutical companies are expected to take the lead in achieving full-chain independent overseas development in terms of 'technology + production capacity + commercialization'.

The license-out model balances risk and reward and has gradually become an important way for Chinese biopharmaceutical companies to generate cash flow. In 2023, the number of initial license-outs exceeded that of licenses-in for the first time, marking a new pattern in which Chinese biopharmaceutical assets shift from 'importing' to 'exporting'. License-outs have become the main driving force for Chinese biopharmaceutical companies going global, with as many as 45 related transaction events in 2024. In the long run, leading companies may gradually shift towards an independent go-global strategy, while small and medium-sized Biotech companies will focus on early research and development pipelines, continuing to maintain transaction activity with differentiated targets.

With application advantages such as capital recovery, risk diversification, resource focus, long-term equity lock-in, and flexible models, NewCo has risen rapidly. Since CanSino Biologics and Belenos formed NewCo in July 2024, the NewCo model has set sail for the first time in China's biopharmaceutical overseas development field. In addition, as of January 2025, Jiahe Biologics, Anmai Biologics, Weilizhibo, Hepalink Biopharmaceuticals, Kurenbote, Tianuo Jiancheng, and Nuo Cheng Jianhua have also initiated NewCo transactions. Although the NewCo model is still in its early stages in China, it is expected to become one of the standard routes for innovative drugs to go global, especially providing a first stop option for those early pipelines and emerging therapies that have not yet found suitable partners.

M&A has provided China's Biotech industry with funds, resources, and globalization channels. From 2023 to 2024, GenScript Biotech, Ppharma Biotech, Xinnuo Biotech, and Pmi Biotech were successively acquired by overseas MNCs and Biotech companies. Chinese biopharmaceutical companies with 'high-barrier technology platforms' and 'clinically validated assets' are more likely to enter the M&A landscape of overseas buyers when their technology platforms align with those of overseas buyers and they have good potential for collaborative development.

In response to the current strong momentum of overseas development among CDMOs, the 'Blue Book' also conducts a systematic analysis of the current situation and trends of these companies going global. The field of CDMOs for biopharmaceuticals in China is advancing its strategic transformation with a global perspective. By constructing overseas R&D and production networks and diversifying its international market layout, the company aims to enhance its global competitiveness and risk resistance capabilities.

Meanwhile, CDMOs are accelerating their capacity upgrade by optimizing production processes and flows, and building large-scale production lines to enhance production efficiency and supply higher-quality capacity globally. In addition to expanding externally, Chinese CDMOs continue to empower by providing alignment with international CMC standards and high-quality R&D technology platforms to ensure raw material supply and help Chinese biopharmaceutical companies successfully go global.

In the future, the advanced upgrading of these four models and their collaborative evolution with CDMO are jointly promoting China's biopharmaceutical industry from 'going global exploration' to 'ecological maturity'.For more detailed content, please refer to the full report..

The 'Blue Book' provides an in-depth analysis of the overseas expansion journey of vaccines, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CGTs), nucleic acid drugs, and other fields. China's biopharmaceutical industry is forming an overseas expansion blueprint with multiple blossoms. Vaccines have taken the lead in going global, mAbs have matured in their overseas deployment, ADCs have become a strong focus for overseas expansion in recent years, while CGTs, nucleic acids, and peptide drugs are emerging, showing extraordinary potential for overseas development.

Meanwhile, China's biopharmaceuticals are expanding their overseas footprint to more countries and regions. The 'Blue Book' conducts a systematic analysis of major overseas destinations including Europe and America, Southeast Asia, Central and North Africa, Latin America, as well as Japan and South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, slowly unfolding a global market panorama for us. In addition, the 'Blue Book' makes an in-depth and detailed analysis of the unique entry barriers and diverse challenges faced by each overseas destination, and accordingly provides a series of targeted countermeasures.For more content, please refer to the full report..

Against the backdrop of accelerating global biopharmaceutical industry transformation, innovation and cooperation becoming mainstream trends, it is crucial to understand the value orientation of buyers in the process of Chinese biopharmaceuticals going global. With the JPM Conference set to be held in 2025, many global leading companies are sharing their layout dynamics. The 'Blue Book' systematically sorts out the future strategic layout plans of multinational corporations (MNCs) such as Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD), Sanofi, and Eli Lilly. In transactions, buyers follow a multi-step, tiered screening decision-making path and conduct strict evaluations of pipelines. The 'Blue Book' points out that Chinese biopharmaceutical companies need to closely monitor future industry trends and dynamics of leading companies. By deeply understanding the buyer's decision-making path and targeting the core criteria that buyers are concerned about, they can strengthen their own capacity building, optimize pipeline competitiveness, and improve negotiation strategies to enhance their initiative in international transactions and promote successful globalization.For more content, please refer to the full report..