Aerial view of Suzhou Industrial Park in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province, where biomedicine stands as one of the park's signature industries. Photo: VCG

The "new new three" - artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and innovative medicine -is now making global headlines as China's latest foreign-trade sensation. This change in export leaders reflects a clear industrial upgrade. While the "new three" (new energy vehicles, lithium batteries and photovoltaic modules) were about scale and efficiency, the "new new three" is about talent density and innovation ecosystems. Nowhere is this clearer than in innovative medicine, where the story is one of creation - and creation, from start to finish, is about people. From generics to breakthroughs, every step bears the mark of human ingenuity.

The year 2025 was a landmark year for China's innovative medicine industry. Data from the National Medical Products Administration showed that a record 76 new drugs were approved, up 58.3 percent year-on-year, with domestic products making up over 80 percent of chemical drugs and over 90 percent of biologics. 

Outbound licensing deals hit $135.7 billion across 157 transactions - nearly triple 2024's total - with China capturing 49 percent of the global market, surpassing the US for the first time. More importantly, this shift is structural: China now leads the world with 4,751 active pipelines (33.7 percent of global R&D), and its First-in-Class share has surged from 4 percent a decade ago to 24 percent today. 

Even more striking: In 2025, only four out of 11 novel-target/novel-mechanism drugs were Chinese-made; just six months later, in the first half of 2026, all 11 were domestically developed. 

China's innovative drug industry has gone from follower to front-runner. What fuel the rise? A simple but powerful principle: People come first.

For a long time, China's innovative drug industry faced an awkward reality: Limited domestic market space, short industrial chains, and early-stage R&D results snapped up cheaply by multinationals - Chinese companies contributed the early discoveries while ceding long-term value. As one insider put it, too many "seedlings" were sold off at low prices to foreign buyers. The talent stayed, but the fruits of innovation didn't.

That narrative is now being rewritten. In 2026, Chinese pharma leaders like Hengrui and Innovent have struck multibillion-dollar global strategic partnerships with global giants, many on a Co-Co basis - sharing development, cost and profits. In the first half of 2026, Chinese firms accounted for eight of the top 10 global pharma deals.

This change is more than a deal-making upgrade - it marks China's transition from a passive exporter to an equal partner, reflecting a national innovation system evolving from isolated breakthroughs to integrated industrial chain restructuring.

Pillars underpin this transformation: R&D talent capable of competing globally, giving Chinese firms the confidence to co-develop and share profits; market validation, with China's 49.5 percent share of global upfront payments in 2025 signaling strong multinational recognition; and domestic demand, backed by a vast patient base and improving reimbursement systems, giving Chinese companies the leverage to say "no" to selling out. People, capability and market - mutually reinforcing and equally indispensable.

Innovative drugs are, by nature, a talent-first industry. Every step of the way - from target discovery and preclinical work to clinical trials and regulatory approval - requires seamless collaboration across disciplines. 

Over the past decade, China has turned out a vast number of biomedical graduates, but the gaps are still glaring. In frontier areas like gene therapy and AI-powered drug discovery, professionals who can straddle both biology and medicine are few and far between. Even more pressing is the shortage of clinical development leaders who can steer global multicenter trials. At the end of the day, drugs are only as good as the people behind them - and the right people make all the difference.

Where the gaps are, where the push is. In 2024, China's State Council approved a full-chain support plan for innovative drug development, which - according to industry interpretation - for the first time listed "dedicated clinical research professionals" as a nationally critical talent category. 

China Pharmaceutical University has taken the lead in implementing the "101 Plan" for pharmacy, building a full-chain talent pipeline from basic research to commercial translation. Local governments are also piloting models like "corporate adjunct professorships" and "industry-academia collaborative training" to move talent from the lab to the front lines of industry.

At the same time, policy innovation is opening up institutional space for talent to thrive. The National Healthcare Security Administration and the National Health Commission jointly rolled out a package of measures to support high-quality innovative drug development. A dual-list mechanism for basic medical insurance and commercial health insurance has been launched, with 50 innovative drugs added to the basic insurance list and 19 to the commercial insurance list. With reimbursement mechanisms steadily improving, the "last mile" of rewarding innovation in drug R&D is finally being paved.

But "people-first" principle means more than that. The ultimate driver of China's innovative drug rise is the health needs of 1.4 billion people. With over 320 million citizens aged 60 and above, China is now a moderately aging society. This vast unmet clinical demand has fueled a powerful innovation engine - the patients you have shape the drugs you make.

And innovation, in turn, must give back to people. Of the 76 innovative drugs approved last year, over 85 percent were homegrown; in the first half of 2026, 31 of 38 were domestically developed. Thanks to a robust industrial base and strong economies of scale, Chinese innovative drugs are often priced far below their Western counterparts - turning cutting-edge therapies from a "luxury for the few" into a more accessible public good. From "waiting for global approval" to "Chinese innovation benefiting the world," these drugs are reaching more people with better affordability and greater efficacy.

From the "new three" to the "new new three," every leap forward in China's industries has been, at its core, a liberation of human creativity. The story of innovative drugs, in particular, tells a fuller tale of what "people" truly mean - they are both the creators and the ultimate beneficiaries.

Talent drives innovation; innovation responds to needs; needs chart the course. In this virtuous loop, human creativity, human health needs, and human well-being form the fundamental logic behind China's innovative drug industry going global. This path leads not just to industrial summits - but to hope for every single life.

The author is an associate professor of Institute of China's Science, Technology and Education Policy in Zhejiang University. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn