By: Chen Ying
2025 (The 42nd) China Pharmaceutical Industry Information Annual Conference & the Beijing · Changping Forum on Life Science was grandly kicked off in Changping, Beijing on July 6, 2025. This event was jointly hosted by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission, Administration Commission of Zhongguancun Science Park, Beijing Municipal Medical Products Administration, Beijing Association for Science and Technology, and Changping District People’s Government of Beijing Municipality, and was supported by China National Pharmaceutical Industry Information Center and Administration Commission of Beijing Future Science City. Highly related to the theme of “Ignite Life for Future”, brought together high-quality resources from government, industry, academia, research institutes, medicine and finance to build an innovation cluster and jointly advance high-quality development of China’s pharmaceutical industry, shaping an industry landmark of global influence.
Yin Yong, the Mayor of Beijing, stated in his speech that the pharmaceutical and health industry is a vital area for developing new-quality productive forces. Beijing boasts the nation’s richest basic research resources in medicine—holding a significant portion of all national key laboratories in the field; numerous national clinical medicine centers and medical centers, the highest numbers nationwide; many tertiary A hospitals out of the large number of medical institutions citywide; and a large total of outpatient and inpatient visits in 2024, of which a considerable share came from non-Beijing patients at tertiary hospitals. Beijing’s talent pool is world-class: academicians in life sciences and medicine comprise a major share of the national total; there are many registered physicians; and several doctors were named among the first batch of National Distinguished Physicians. Looking ahead, Beijing will further optimize its business environment and roll out new support policies in AI + health, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, and institution construction, accelerating the development of a globally influential modern health industry cluster.
Xie Yuansheng, a member of the Party Leadership Group of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, stated in his speech that the rapid growth of China’s pharmaceutical industry—accounting for a notable share of total industrial output in 2024, with numerous companies each posting significant revenues. Innovation has surged: dozens of new drugs and medical devices were approved in 2024, and international cooperation has deepened. MIIT will raise industry development levels to better meet public needs, enhance enterprise competitiveness and promote transformation; and showcase China’s strength by supporting companies’ internationalization.
Huang Guo, the deputy director of the National Medical Products Administration, stated in his speech that in the first half of 2025, the NMPA approved a significant number of innovative drugs—most of them domestically developed. In January, the first stem-cell therapy developed by a Beijing company was approved, and several multinationals announced new R&D centers in Beijing, underscoring the city’s vitality in pharmaceutical innovation. The agency will balance development and safety, efficiency and fairness, and supervision and service—deepening reforms, expanding institutional openness, optimizing the environment, and encouraging both inbound and outbound innovation.
Gan Jingzhong, the Secretary of the Changping District Party Committee, mentioned in his speech that Changping is focusing on building a “Life Valley” with the Life Sciences Park at its core, creating an innovation corridor, and developing an “investment + clinical + incubation + park” ecosystem. To date, many shared-service platforms have been established, several technologies were named among the top achievements of the 2025 Zhongguancun Forum, and numerous cell- and gene-therapy pipelines have entered clinical trials. Changping has attracted many innovators in synthetic biology manufacturing, formed a “Future Beauty City” cluster, launched the first phase of the International Medical Device City and a national medical-device innovation service station, and achieved sustained growth in health-industry revenue over the past years, solidifying a fast-growing industrial cluster.
At the same ceremony, the main forum announced the Top 100 pharmaceutical companies by main-business revenue in 2024 (per the China Pharmaceutical Statistical Yearbook): Beijing placed many companies among the top, ranking second alongside Zhejiang. These Beijing-based firms generated a large amount of revenue, accounting for a major portion of national pharma revenue and profit—leading all provinces—while their assets represented a substantial share of the national total.
The Beijing·Changping Forum on Life Science has seen three consecutive successes since 2022, standing as a high-level pageant of life science and healthcare brand presented by Changping District. Also, the China Pharmaceutical Industry Information Annual Conference, hosted by the China National Pharmaceutical Industry Information Center, has been successfully held for 41 sessions since 1959, gathering policy interpretations, ecological chain enterprise cooperation, and cutting-edge discussions by leading experts each year, as it seeks to stand as a barometer of the development of the pharmaceutical industry.
Beijing will strengthen its “north-south linkage”: in the north, building on Zhongguancun’s Life Sciences Park to connect Haidian and Changping—deepening the International Medical Device City, synthetic biology clusters, and beauty health parks to accelerate translation of scientific achievements; in the south, the new BioPark in the Economic-Technological Development Area will serve as the first global entrepreneurial hub for pharmaceutical talent, co-creating a “new engine” with Daxing.
Changping District has built an industrial layout of “One Core, One Belt, and Three Zones” in recent years, and formed a complete industrial chain spanning from basic research to terminal medicine. Starting from the regional resource endowment and industrial foundation, the District has gone all out to grow its medicine and healthcare sector and solidly promoted every task, embracing sustained annual growth in medicine and health revenue, and year-on-year increases. Therefore, it has stood as an innovation engine for the development of the medicine and healthcare industry in Beijing and nationwide.
