Inclusion into China's national reimbursement drug list alone does not guarantee revenue growth but in some cases higher volumes seem to be offsetting the requisite big price cuts, reveal second-quarter results from some leading publicly-traded biotechs in the country.

In the latest sign that some multinationals are scaling down operations in the world's second-largest pharma market, Mundipharma is reported to be exploring the sale of its business in China, with a large group of bidders including state-owned Sinopharm and local private equity firm Boyu Capital in the running.

The Beijing/Boston-based bioventure shocked the industry with its recent announcement of the return of exclusive rights to an oncology assets in the greater China area to its US licensee, in an effort to focus squarely on rare diseases. CEO James Xue shares his views on this market in China in an exclusive interview with Scrip.

After an earlier frenzy around local production and supply, policies to encourage generics, and fast-evolving procedural streamlining, Pfizer’s $350m ambition to develop and make cheaper biologics in China has come to an abrupt halt with the sale of its manufacturing site in a deal with services heavyweight WuXi Apptec.