National People's Congress Deputy Li Yan Proposes Elevating Pharmaceutical Industry to a National Strategic Sector

Economic Daily - China Economic Network, May 25 (Reporters Zhu Guowang and Guo Wenpei): “On one hand, the progress of clinical research on domestically produced new drugs has been affected by the epidemic; meanwhile, foreign products are flooding in.” Recently, at the 2020 “Voice? Responsibility” symposium for NPC deputies and CPPCC members from the medical and health sectors, Li Yan, President of Qilu Pharmaceutical, stated that under the new normal of epidemic prevention and control, the challenges in developing domestically produced innovative drugs have intensified. To address this, she recommended elevating the pharmaceutical industry to a national strategic industry, allocating resources at the national level to meet clinical needs, thereby demonstrating the clinical value of domestically produced innovative drugs.

Li Yan stated that in recent years, spurred by supportive national policies, the system and ecosystem for drug innovation have been continuously optimized. The annual number of new drug applications in China, along with the pace of R&D and innovation projects across enterprises, has accelerated significantly, while also attracting many overseas-educated professionals to return home and engage in drug innovation. “Against this backdrop, elevating the pharmaceutical industry to the status of a national strategic industry at the state level would facilitate more effective resource allocation. As demonstrated during the sudden outbreak of the epidemic, the centralized allocation of various resources at the national level provided a crucial guarantee for the rapid containment of the outbreak,” she remarked. She emphasized that, given the pharmaceutical industry’s close ties to public livelihood and health, further enhancing its strategic positioning at the national level would better promote its development.

Furthermore, Li Yan pointed out that China’s biopharmaceutical supply chain is heavily reliant on imports, and clinical case resources are relatively fragmented. She recommended strengthening upstream supply chain infrastructure at the national level to create more favorable conditions for corporate innovation.