China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with nine other government departments, recently issued the "15th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Pharmaceutical Industry."

The plan proposes that by 2030, China's biopharmaceutical R&D and application shall rank among the world's leading positions, the effectiveness of innovation-driven development shall be fully unleashed, and systematic breakthroughs shall be achieved in key core technologies in priority fields. Core competitiveness and international influence shall rise substantially. The biopharmaceutical industry shall accelerate its transformation into a new pillar industry of the nation, continuously safeguarding and enhancing the people's life and health.

The plan sets out ten anticipated indicators, including: by 2030, the operating revenue of pharmaceutical industrial enterprises above designated size shall be no less than 3.5 trillion yuan; the proportion of first-in-class (FIC) drugs originating from China shall be no less than 25% of the global total; the number of innovative drugs approved for marketing shall rank among the world's top; the cumulative number of innovative medical devices approved for marketing shall be no less than 200; the average annual growth rate of the innovative drug industry scale shall be no less than 20%; the number of pharmaceutical industrial enterprises with annual operating revenue exceeding 10 billion yuan shall reach 50; the number of 100-billion-yuan-level pharmaceutical industrial parks shall reach 20; and the number of products with annual global sales exceeding 1 billion US dollars shall be no less than 5.