Typically, state intervention in pharmaceuticals is aimed at drug cost control which, if taken to extremes, can border on nationalism.

Major deals showed an increasing focus on domestic tie-ups while an unsatiable appetite for innovation drove drug firms to actively seek out biotechs for collaboration.

Out of the more than 40 approvals granted to new drugs in China in 2021, domestic companies bagged around half to catch up with their multinational peers in the annual innovation scorecard.

China’s largest innovative domestic drug maker will only take global those products that play into its strengths, chairman Piaoyang Sun declares.