Why was this theme selected?

• The Chinese healthcare industry has advanced in leaps and bounds over the past 5-10 years, with all the dynamism and excitement of an industry undergoing unprecedented transformation.
• The global COVID-19 pandemic in recent years has drove home the fundamental importance of healthcare to humanity as well as the global nature of science and innovation.
• Many innovations that have emerged in the Chinese market over this period could bring immense value to other countries in both developed and developing regions.

Key facts and figures about the Chinese healthcare market
China is the second-largest healthcare market in the world, and one of the fastest growing. In 2020, healthcare spending was 7.1% of GDP, slightly under the OECD average of 8.8%.

From the 2000s onwards, the Chinese healthcare industry has enjoyed a broadly positive macro-environment, with supportive regulatory reforms, significant access to capital and huge waves of returning overseas Chinese with extensive academic and industry experience. In 2016, the government unveiled its national blueprint for developing the healthcare sector with its Healthy China 2030 road map, which listed health, innovation and scientific development as national priorities. Chinese president Xi Jinping has also declared healthcare “a strategic sector for priority development”.

Achievements of Chinese healthcare

• In 2007, China’s health system was ranked 144^th in terms of quality and access out of 190 countries by the World Health Organisation.[1] Today, China performs significantly better, ranking 20^th (out of 57^th) on the Bloomberg Health-Efficiency Index and 52^nd (out of 195 countries) on the Global Health Security Index.
• Over the past three decades, China has successfully provided universal basic medical coverage to 1.3 billion people – the largest increase in insurance coverage in human history.[2]

The development of Chinese healthcare innovation

The Chinese healthcare industry is innovating rapidly. To name just a few examples:

• In 2019, 9 out of the top 100 on the Nature Index Life Sciences (which measures research output) were Chinese institutions, up from 4 in 2015.^[3]
• China increased its share of the global biopharma innovation pipeline from 4.1% in 2015 to 13.9% in 2020.^[4]
• Pharmaceutical Executive’s Top 50 rankings (of pharma companies in terms of Rx sales) included Chinese players Sino Biopharmaceutical and Jiangsu Hengrui for the first time.^[5]
• Indigenous innovation may still be at an early stage in the medtech sector but “business model innovation with new digital approaches and tools” is a main theme.^[6]

[1] 2018 Drug Discoveries & Therapeutics article, China’s achievements and challenges in improving health insurance coverage, Cuirong Zhao et al.
[2] Ibid.
[3] The Nature Index tracks contributions to research articles published in 82 high-quality natural-science journals, chosen based on reputation by an independent group of researchers.
[4] 2021 China Pharmaceutical Innovation and Research Development Association (PhIRDA) and the R&D-based Pharmaceutical Association Committee (RDPAC) report, Building China’s pharmaceutical innovation ecosystem (part one): 2015-2020 development review and future prospects.
[5] 2019 Pharmaceutical Executive article, Pharm Exec’s Top 50 Companies 2019.
[6] 2020 McKinsey report, China MedTech – Path to a global leading market.