In Monitor’s recent report, “China, the Life Sciences Leader of 2020,” George Baeder and Michael Zielenziger find that China is poised to become the global leader in life science discovery and innovation within the next decade.
At a time when the global life sciences and pharmaceutical industries are beset by major challenges, including patent cliffs, skyrocketing costs of drug approvals and failures in key trials for potentially landmark new drugs, China has developed a strategy of targeted government investments. Through a variety of national and regional programs, China is spending billions on a new health care “safety net,” encouraging the growth of life science parks and startups, financing the development of a high-quality research infrastructure and luring back tens of thousands of Western-educated Chinese researchers.
In these video clips, Baeder and Zielenziger discuss the findings of the new report. They cover how China’s life sciences leadership has the potential to reinvent the global pharmaceutical industry, what challenges China needs to overcome to become a life sciences powerhouse, and what Western companies can do to take advantage of this shift in the industry.
China, long viewed as just a low-cost producer of copycat products, is dramatically reinventing its image. The country is investing heavily in its life sciences infrastructure and is poised to contribute significant life sciences innovations in the next decade, George Baeder and Michael Zielenziger explain. This change is particularly worthy of attention as the Western pharmaceutical industry hits major stumbling blocks.
A Monitor survey found that approximately 80,000 top-tier Chinese PhDs who had been working at prestigious institutions in the West are returning to China to work in research institutions or academic institutes, lured by incentives such as the country’s Thousand Talents program. Baeder and Zielenziger explain that this transfer of talent, along with China’s skyrocketing research capabilities, is transforming the structure of the global pharmaceutical industry.
Though China is well positioned to lead the global life sciences industry in the next decade, one major barrier to its success is the country’s slow and burdensome drug approval process. Baeder and Zielenziger explain that China may either rework its regulatory system to become more like the U.S. FDA, or it may develop its own model of approval.
George Baeder, based in Monitor’s Shanghai office, leads the firm’s Life Science practice in Asia, covering pharmaceuticals, medical devices, over-the-counter medicines and healthcare delivery. He helps clients anticipate fundamental changes in the market and competitive landscape, and has led numerous corporate market entry, product launch and in-line growth strategies across a wide range of therapeutic areas. Over more than three decades in Hong Kong, Singapore and China, he has worked across consulting, investment banking and private equity to advise senior executives of leading Western and Asian firms as well as government policy makers on the development and effective implementation of innovative strategies. He can be reached at George_Baeder AT Monitor DOT com.
Michael Zielenziger, a Pulitzer-prize finalist for his reporting from China, works with Monitor Group analyzing issues related to Asia and globalization and is a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. The former Tokyo bureau chief for Knight Ridder Newspapers, Zielenziger is the author of Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday) which describes the social malaise and economic decline that now confronts an aging Japan. As a consultant, he advises corporations and governments on developing strategic priorities and discerning emergent trends. He is a former John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He can be reached at Michael_Zielenziger AT Monitor DOT com.