China wants investors to fund innovation

Is now the right time to invest in China? If yes, what kind of startups are the best bet? What is considered an innovative business model in current China? These are the questions lively discussed at the 2016 China Healthcare Investment Conference (CHIC), which was held in Shanghai in late March, reports The Pharma Letter’s local correspondent Wang Fangqing.

The Chinese government is keen on attracting International investments, said Bi Jiyao, a director at China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). “China as a fast aging country has huge demand for healthcare products and services, a major part of which are high quality and novel drugs. But under China’s current system, it’s difficult for a startup to get funded. We hope international investors will be able to catch the opportunity,” Mr Bi said at CHIC.

The Chinese government underscores innovation in the 13th five-year plan (2015 to 2020) for the pharma industry, aiming to turn China from a drug manufacturer to a drug innovator. To encourage innovation, China recently changed some polices to speed up its notoriously slow approval process for Investigational New Drug (IND) and New Drug Applications (NDA), and is in progress to upgrade the drug list covered by the national Medicare program, which has remained the same for the past seven years.