China's changing role in global clinical studies

By Wang Fangqing

Multinationals corporations (MNCs) have been actively adding China to their multicenter global clinical studies in recent years, it was made clear at a recent meeting.

For one thing, Chinese patients’ data can speed up the new drug application (NDA) approval process in China; for another, the quality of China’s studies have been largely improved since the nation joined ICH (International Council for Harmonization of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use) in 2017. While so far most China studies are late stage trials, some MNCs tried to include China in early stage trials.