From AI to IPOs, from access models to mobile payments, China’s biopharma sector increasingly became a global leader in biotech financing and digital health innovation in 2018. Here is Scrip's pick of eight key events that captured the major developments in China’s dynamic, highly fluid biopharma commercial scene throughout the year.

Many materials subject to order, APIs needed for OTC as well as Rx drugs, are supplied by companies outside the US, and China accounts for the bulk of them. The order didn't specify countries and products, leaving decisions to FDA.

Just three years after its founding, Chinese cell therapy developer IASO Bio already has two assets in clinical development and the Nanjing firm has recently attracted $60m in financing. In an exclusive interview, its R&D head told Scrip that speed and partnerships are propelling Chinese developers on a trajectory to quickly catch up with the west in the emerging cell-therapy arena.