Zhangjiang Pharma Valley 2025: Becoming a Global Hub for Biopharma Innovation

Jan 26, 2026 14:56 CST Updated 14:56

MoleculeMind

AI Protein Design Platform Developer

Biokin

Pharmaceutical R&D Developer

Daiichi - Sankyo

Pharmaceutical Development, Production, Sales, and Consulting Service Provider

In 2025, a clear and profound change occurred in Zhangjiang Pharm Valley.

Driven by the overall layout of "Zhangjiang Pharm Valley+," this area is no longer just an innovation hub known for its number of enterprises and project density, but is gradually becoming a central operating hub for the biopharmaceutical industry that can coordinate resources, organize industries, and amplify outcomes. As one of the most representative core zones for China's biopharmaceutical innovation, Zhangjiang Pharm Valley continues to bridge the critical links between research, transformation, and application, driving biopharmaceutical innovation from "Can it be done?" to "It can be achieved and sustained," allowing more innovative results to move out of the lab, enter clinical scenarios, and reach real markets.

Innovative closed-loop, accelerating the implementation of results

Over the past year, the most iconic change in Zhangjiang Pharm Valley has been the systematic completion of the life cycle闭环 for biopharmaceutical innovation achievements.

Data shows that in 2025, Zhangjiang registered over 170 new biopharmaceutical enterprises throughout the year. A number of major projects were simultaneously advanced in construction, production, and commissioning. Throughout the year, eight Class 1 new drugs were approved, with a cumulative total exceeding 30, further solidifying Zhangjiang's leading position as the "first launch site, preferred site, and original innovation site" for innovative drugs.

But more important than the numbers themselves are the structural changes behind them — an increasing number of companies are choosing to locate their R&D headquarters, registration entities, and core innovation resources in Zhangjiang PharmPark.

(Image Source: Eli Lilly)

Eli LillyEstablished in the core area of Zhangjiang Science CityShanghai Innovation Incubator(Lilly Gateway Labs, LGL) has officially commenced operations and completed the signing with its first入驻企业 MoleculeMind, forming a "resources-incubation-research"三位一体 synergy; Biokin has established a global research and development center in Zhangjiang, continuously introducing cutting-edge technologies such as ADC; companies like Zai Lab and Allecra have formed continuous capabilities here ranging from pipeline储备 to commercialized products.

In Zhangjiang Pharm Valley, biopharmaceutical innovation is no longer just "promising" but can be accelerated to implementation.

Capability Upgrade, Dual Expansion of Industry and Services

If the industrial closed-loop is the result, then industrial capability is precisely the core competitiveness that Zhangjiang Pharma Valley will prominently display by 2025.

Shanghai Pudong Life Science Industry Development Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as "Pudong Life Science Industry Company") is advancing towards becoming an outstanding comprehensive service provider for the Pudong biopharmaceutical industry ecosystem. It coordinates the operation and management of Zhangjiang Pharma Valley · Innovation Core, R&D Headquarters Agglomeration Zone, Cell and Gene Agglomeration Zone, Innovative Drug Production Agglomeration Zone, and Medical Device Agglomeration Zone, establishing a spatial development pattern of "multi-point blossoming and multi-location linkage." It continuously expands industrial development space and constantly attracts high-quality enterprises in the life sciences field to gather in Zhangjiang.

At the same time, focusing on key areas such as ADCs, radiopharmaceuticals, cell and gene therapy, nucleic acid drugs, AI pharmaceuticals, and brain-computer interfaces, as the main body of Zhangjiang Pharm Valley's industrial operations and professional services, Pudong Life Science Industry Company is systematically advancing the "one track, one team" working mechanism in Zhangjiang Pharm Valley. This mechanism integrates industry research, project introduction, implementation promotion, and subsequent growth into a unified operational framework. With the support of this mechanism,Roche Biologics, Daiichi Sankyo ADC ProjectSmooth start;Hengrui Medicine Shanghai Innovation Research Center, Oriental Hospital National Key Laboratory of Heart Disease, Perceptive Life Headquarters and Industrialization BaseOfficially launched; Akeso Biotech Global R&D Center structural topping out,Qilu Pharmaceutical, Orient GeneHeadquarters-type projects have successively started construction. These projects are not scattered points but are embedded in a clear track structure and industrial map, becoming an important part of the operation of the Zhangjiang Pharm Valley industrial system.

As the project accelerates, the service capabilities of Zhangjiang Pharma Valley continue to improve. By 2025, the Pudong Life Science Industry Company will focus on different stages of enterprises from establishment to growth, promoting its service system to evolve from being registration-coordination-centric to a full life-cycle service network covering key areas such as laboratory construction, policy alignment, talent services, technology finance, clinical resource coordination, achievement transformation, product adoption by hospitals, and enterprise globalization. To date, the Pudong Life Science Industry Company has served a cumulative number of enterprises.11,386, including key enterprises408 companies, providing continuous support for the stable development of the industry.

Zhangjiang Yaogu International Innovation Conference

As the industrial scale and service system improve simultaneously, under the overall planning and promotion of Pudong Life Science Industry Company, the ecological influence of Zhangjiang Pharm Valley has been further amplified. In 2025, Pudong Life Science Industry Company will upgrade the "Zhangjiang Life Science International Summit" to the "Zhangjiang Pharm Valley International Innovation Conference," using a "1+3+1" combination model to showcase key track progress, institutional exploration, and ecological vitality. The concurrently operated "Zhangjiang Pharm Valley" series of salons will be held 94 times throughout the year, focusing on topics such as regulatory policies, intellectual property, technology finance, collaborative transformation, enterprise globalization, and data empowerment, continuously connecting enterprises with professional service agencies and key resources.

On this basis, the Zhangjiang Pharm Valley Comprehensive Service Center was officially inaugurated and began trial operations in October 2025, integrating investment attraction services, industry promotion, and professional resources, and assuming functions such as "the first stop for investment, service entry point, and scientists' lounge."

Collaborative Efforts to Connect Innovation with Clinical Practice

If the front end of service is "how innovation is systematically organized," then "how innovation enters real scenarios, and how it is validated and utilized" represents the terminal end of service. Companies in Pudong's life science industry are optimizing their investment attraction systems by integrating track layouts, promoting earlier involvement of medical resources in the innovation transformation process, and further enhancing the service capabilities for enterprises.

Focusing on intelligent health care and technology-assisted disability support, systematic exploration has been carried out, visiting more than ten real clinical and elderly care institutions to provide application-end feedback for pharmaceutical valley enterprises; simultaneously, the Pudong Intelligent Elderly Care Industry Exhibition and Exchange Center has been established, showcasing innovative achievements from over 100 companies.

At the achievement level, nine companies from Zhangjiang were selected for the "First Batch of Aging-Friendly Products Recommended Catalog" in Pudong New Area, accounting for over 50%; in the first "Technology-Assisted Disability Products Recommended Catalog," 40% of the products come from Zhangjiang, demonstrating significant agglomeration and transformation advantages.

By jointly building industry-academia-research-application demonstration bases, supporting the establishment of a smart health research platform, and participating in policy formulation, Zhangjiang's biopharmaceutical industry is addressing the "last mile" gap from technology to application.

Looking back at 2025, Zhangjiang Pharm Valley is accelerating its progress toward becoming the "industrial hub" of biomedicine. The transformation of Zhangjiang Pharm Valley is not an isolated case but a phased achievement of the systematic advancement of the biopharmaceutical industry by the Zhangjiang Group.

Standing at a new starting point and looking towards 2026, under the coordination of Zhangjiang Group, the Pudong Life Science Industry Company will promote resource integration, innovative convergence, and service coupling, enabling Zhangjiang Pharma Valley to accelerate its growth into a globally influential and organizationally capable biopharmaceutical industry hub.

Source: Hello Zhangjiang