China was a focus of discussions at the 2020 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, as a Phase One trade agreement was signed to end a 17-month dispute with the US. Patent linkage and IP protection enforcement are also being closely watched, while Chinese firms including BeiGene continue to make strides in oncology deal-making.

2019 will be remembered as a banner year for international drug makers as many grew at phenomenal rates in China, despite expansion of the “4+7” centralized procurement scheme and steep price cuts in exchange for reimbursement. As the government continues to emphasize affordability for cancer drugs and major anti-infectives, competition is heating up quickly and immune-oncology alone has seen six PD-1s elbowing each other for market share.

2019 was the year that China approved the first new drug for Alzheimer's in nearly two decades and for the first US approval of an original cancer drug from China. While the simmering US trade war has been addressed by a phase one agreement to be signed, other uncertainties marked a year dominated by a large vaccine scandal and resulting bankruptcy, and increasing calls to include China in global clinical development plans.

Emerging Company Profile: The company's novel lupus drug could gain approval in China next year, leading the way for more made-in-China novel drugs to gain approvals soon.

The first country ever to approve a gene therapy, China has subsequently lagged in the area due to a lack of clear regulatory pathways and insufficient financial incentives. Now a new crop of developers are aiming to revitalize ambitions and make the country a major power for promising novel treatments for rare neurodegenerative conditions, retinal dystrophy, HIV and cancer.

Scientific experiment now a criminal charge and the scientist He Jiankui is sentenced to three years in prison and also levied a fine.Two collaborators face similar fate.