China’s Drug Regulator Clears Wave of Home-Grown Innovative Medicines amid Biotech Boom

An article titled "China’s drug regulator clears wave of home-grown innovative medicines amid biotech boom" argued that China’s drug approvals were increasingly being driven by domestic biotech companies, with 15 of the 19 innovative medicines cleared by regulators so far this year coming from home-grown firms, supported by faster regulatory approvals, rising R&D investment, and a surge in cross-border licensing deals.

The article mentioned that Chuan Sun, Managing Partner at MoFo’s Shanghai and Hong Kong offices, said at the 2026 ChinaBio Partnering Forum in Shanghai that cross-border biotech transactions increasingly needed to account for both Chinese and U.S. regulatory considerations, including export controls, concerns related to the U.S. Biosecure Act, and data transfer rules.

According to Chuan, however, life sciences remained in a relatively stronger position than sectors such as semiconductors or artificial intelligence, because medicines that addressed disease were harder to frame as national security risks.

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