Chinese Pharma is On the Cusp of Going Global (economist.com) 47
China's pharmaceutical industry has quietly evolved from a hub for generics and clinical trials into something more ambitious -- a genuine competitor in drug discovery that Western giants are now courting to fill gaps left by looming patent expirations worth over $300 billion by 2030. In the first half of 2025, nearly a third of global licensing agreements signed by big pharma involved Chinese firms, Economist reports, four times the share from 2021. Pfizer agreed in May to pay $1.25 billion to 3SBio for an experimental cancer drug, and GlaxoSmithKline followed in June with a deal valued at up to $12 billion with Hengrui. Chinese companies now run about a third of the world's clinical trials, up from 5% a decade ago.
Will be prohibited into the United States (Score:5, Interesting)
In the name of Safety. Efficacy and the potential of becoming overly dependent on China for an essential product or service.
But the main underlying reason is that low priced competition won't be allowed patent or no patent. The entrenched players will see to that by manipulating congress to get what they want. For an example look at Chinese electric cars.
Re: Will be prohibited into the United States (Score:2)
There is a lot of plastic and such already.
Re: Will be prohibited into the United States (Score:2)
No need to apologise, except to yourself.
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Regardless of why it's done, such a prohibition is a good and necessary thing. China has already proven that they will use control over exports to make economic war on those it wishes to conquer and enslave (which is everyone).
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So has the USA of old, cf. COCOM.
So does the new trumpistan, too, except that unlike the USA of old, trumpistan has been using this approach to only to cause pain, suffering and destruction.
With a second large supplier, the world will be slightly better off. Expect also that India will join shortly to become a third source of low quality, diluted stuff as well. As a fringe benefit, the destruction of the global trading system at the hands of trump will also remove a lot of the "intellectual property protec
Re: Will be prohibited into the United States (Score:3)
Rofl. Looking in the mirror again? Seriously, how can you even think this?
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Surely some of their developments will improve quality of medicine and improve treatment or even cure some diseases.
They will own patents, so, if USA bans their medicaments directly, they will end up relying licensing them and approving through US private pharma partners.
Either that, or US will be unable to benefit from some modern drugs until patents expire.
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Now imagine if they are allowed on Amazon's marketplace. That will end well.
I agree about corporate health care being all for-profit and taking advantage of the sick; but China is not the answer.
Re: Short attention span (Score:3)
There are several documented cases of U.S. medicines causing widespread harm due to contamination or tampering. A prominent example is the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak, caused by contaminated steroid injections from the New England Compounding Center, which sickened over 700 people and led to numerous deaths. In a case of criminal tampering, Sudafed capsules were laced with cyanide in 1991, resulting in fatalities. More recently, in 2025, a U.S.-made infant formula was recalled after being linked to a bo
About time (Score:4, Insightful)
Western pharmaceutical companies have gotten fat and lazy and do not take the risk of doing R&D anymore, with rare exceptions. If China kicks their collective behinds, all the better.
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The problem I think is that now the student has become the master, and the west is finding that out.
Like hat has never happened before and nobody could anticipate that....
Japanese cameras and then electronics for one close example. Or look up where "Made in Germany" came from.
Puppetmaster is hidden (Score:2)
It's hard to know what industry or company Xi is subsidizing, as their system is not transparent.
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Soo, how would they "subsidize everything"? I mean, where would the money come from? Materializes out of thin air?
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Agreed. Also the amount of waste, concentration of money that then does not cause productivity, significant parts of the population losing access to education, medical care, etc. are a factor in a society descending.
Let's hope this goes without a major war. That is at least a possibility, since global dependencies make wars much, much more costly than they used to be.
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Another thing is China kind of "herds" factory workers in a way the US cannot. For example, they limit housing options near factory towns so the space can be dedicated to factories, large-scale NIMBY-ism. If a company folds, workers' temporary mini-housing makes it logistically easier to move to a new town, but it's hard on families.
Thus, biz owners have a kind of de-facto slave class that's relatively easy to shift around as needed.
This is also a form of subsidizing industry. China has managed to combine c
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There has never been too much of "R&D" anyhow. Most of the R&D is actually government-sponsored. 100% of the fundamental research, probably over 30% or 40% of the applied, too.
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Indeed. Profit-driven is not enough.
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They will probably charge a much fairer price for their treatments too, which will be very welcome.
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You mean unlike the US pharma price-gouging, where people pay 20x as much as they do for basically the same product with the same safety in other places? Let's hope so. Americans may find out that most things can actually be treated without sending you into medical bankruptcy.
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Used to be, but Trump has kinda ruined it for the rest of us. He complained that they were charging Americans more, so instead of reducing their prices, they just increased them everywhere else.
As an example, Mounjaro went from around £180 in the UK, to around £300.
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Crappy people at work. We really need to make greed a punishable offense in some areas.
Isn't China hostile to the USA? And the world? (Score:1)
China has been acting very aggressively lately. They act like a bully. I believe China is committed to bringing down the USA. I am not sure I want to buy pharmaceuticals from them.
Re:Isn't China hostile to the USA? And the world? (Score:5, Informative)
Re: Isn't China hostile to the USA? And the world? (Score:1)
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China is committed to controlling the world. All of it. They believe themselves so inherently superior to the lesser races that it is their destiny and obligation to run everyone.
They've been playing similar games in Africa for years. They're just confident enough now to move on to bigger prey.
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Given that "the bigger pray" elects and appoints freely foreign agents to rule them, why not?
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Gotta work on that English, Vlad.
Re: Isn't China hostile to the USA? And the world? (Score:5, Insightful)
No, they are not hostile to the USA. You have it backwards. China just refuses to be bullied and responds in kind, because it can.
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We've mostly been seeing Chinese influence operations and attempts to gain soft power in nonaligned countries. Pretty tame if you know what the CIA has been up to.
I am not sure I want to buy pharmaceuticals from them.
Up until the "Liberation Day" this year, they've been buying food from us. If they succeeded in taking us down, they would've starved themselves. How's that for a critical dependency? And you're here complaining about a dependency on their medicine?
Also they don't need to bring us down, we're doing a great job of taking ourselves down.
Bah (Score:1)
Re: Bah (Score:2)
You asked about domestic supplies...
 New England Compounding Center (2012): Compounded steroid injections were contaminated with fungus, causing over 700 infections and more than 60 deaths from fungal meningitis.
 Sudafed Tampering (1991): Over-the-counter cold capsules were deliberately laced with cyanide, resulting in two fatalities from acute poisoning.
 ByHeart Infant Formula (2025): A U.S.-manufactured infant formula was linked to a botulism outbreak, hospitalizing dozens of infants.
As opposed to MAHA (Score:2)
where our reseach is being cut with a chainsaw.