Cancer treatments remain the top research focus as Beijing’s drive to make biotech a strategic industry draws attention in Washington
registrationsin China hit a record last year, the country’s drug regulator said, with more than 5,000 trials reported in the latest sign of the nation’s
growing pipelineof novel drug candidates. The total number of clinical drug trials reached 5,215 in 2025, more than double the figure recorded in 2020, according to a report released by the National Medical Products Administration on Monday.
Of those, 57.5 per cent were trials for new drugs, an 18 per cent year-on-year increase, while the remainder were bioequivalence studies, which test whether a generic drug performs identically to its branded counterpart in the body.
Trials were concentrated in Beijing and Shanghai, as well as in the provinces of Guangdong and Jiangsu, the report said.
Chinese companies and institutions initiated or funded 93 per cent of all registered trials. About 92 per cent were conducted within China, while the rest were part of global studies that included patient sites in the country.
metabolic disorderssuch as diabetes and thyroid disease, and vaccines designed to prevent infectious diseases, the report showed.