正文
But its drugmakers are now also at the cutting edge, producing innovative medicines that are cheaper than the ones they compete with. China has become the second-largest developer of new drugs, behind only America .
然而，如今中国药企已跻身创新药物研发前沿，生产出价格更低廉的同类产品。中国已成为全球第二大新药研发国，仅次于美国。
As a consequence, Western drugmakers are increasingly looking east for ideas. Because of expiring drug patents, they stand to lose as much as $140bn a year in sales by 2030. Last year nearly a third of the large licensing deals they struck—those worth $50m or more—were with Chinese firms, triple the share of 2020.
受专利到期影响，西方药企到
2030
年或将面临每年高达
1400
亿美元的销售额损失。在此背景下，它们愈发将目光投向东方寻求创新。去年，西方药企达成的近三分之一大型授权交易（价值
5000
万美元以上）均与中国企业合作，这一比例是
2020
年的三倍。
LEK, a consultancy, estimates that during that time, the total value of drugs licensed worldwide from China rose 15-fold, to $48bn. In November Merck paid $588m to LaNova Medicines, another Chinese biotech firm, to secure rights to a therapy similar to that produced by Akeso.
咨询公司
LEK
的数据显示，同期全球从中国授权的药物总价值增长了
15
倍，达到
480
亿美元。去年
11
月，默克向另一家中国生物科技公司礼新医药支付
5.88
亿美元，以获得类似康方生物疗法的开发权。
China’s government identified biotech as a strategic priority nearly two decades ago. But it was not until 2015 that things really took off, after the drug regulator launched ambitious reforms.
中国早在二十年前就将生物科技列为战略重点，但直到
2015
年，随着药品监管机构启动雄心勃勃的改革，行业才真正迎来腾飞。
It took on more staff and cleared a
backlog
of 20,000 drug applications in two years. Clinical trials were streamlined and brought into step with global standards. A study by Yimin Cui of Peking University and colleagues found that the time taken to approve the first round of human trials fell to 87 days, from 501 days before the reforms.
监管机构扩充人员队伍，两年内清理了
2
万份积压的药品申请；临床试验流程得到简化，并逐步与国际标准接轨。北京大学崔一民教授团队的研究显示，改革后，首次人体临床试验的审批时间从
501
天缩短至
87
天。
The changes coincided with a wave of returning “sea turtles”, the term for Chinese people who studied or worked abroad. China’s vast domestic market helped to attract big drugmakers to its shores, bringing know-how and talent. Easier listing rules gave biotech investors a clearer path to exit. Private funding for Chinese biotech firms rose from $1bn in 2016 to $13.4bn in 2021.
改革恰逢
“
海归潮
”
，大批曾在海外学习或工作的中国人才回国发展。庞大的国内市场吸引跨国药企纷纷在华设立研发中心，带来先进技术与管理经验。与此同时，上市规则的放宽为生物科技投资者提供了更清晰的退出路径。
2016
