Asia's share of global innovative drugs jumped from 28% to 43% in five years — and the region drove 85% of growth in 2024, with China alone now near 30%.

China’s advantage is scale across discovery and development, and India in cost-efficiency and innovation footprint. For decades, the global biotechnology map was largely defined by a handful of established centres in the United States, and Europe. Boston, the Bay Area, Cambridge, and a few European clusters became synonymous with breakthrough science, venture capital, and pharmaceutical innovation. That geography is beginning to change. Asia is no longer peripheral to global biotech but is becoming central to it. The region is playing an increasingly pivotal role in how new medicines are discovered, developed, and brought to patients worldwide. Asia's share of the global innovative pipeline has increased from 28% to 43% in just five years, with the region contributing more than 85% of global pipeline growth in 2024. China alone now represents close to 30% of the world's innovative pipeline. These numbers point to something larger: The economics and architecture of biotech innovation are becoming more distributed. Discovery, translational research, clinical development, capital, and commercialisation no longer need to sit within the same geography. Across Asia, these capabilities are developing at different speeds and in different combinations. China and India are particularly well positioned within this transformation, but their strengths and opportunities are distinct. China is moving from scale to innovationChina's biotech transformation has been particularly rapid. Its ecosystem has evolved from one centred primarily on manufacturing and generics to one increasingly capable of discovering and developing innovative therapies. The country's growing share of the global innovative pipeline is perhaps the clearest indication of this transition. Chinese companies are no longer simply adopting technologies developed elsewhere. They are increasingly generating assets that attract global interest and can move through international regulatory and commercial pathways. It is estimated that one in four INDs filed with the FDA now come from China, which is an incredible feat within a very short span of time. For years, the dominant model was for Western companies to discover and develop therapies whilst leveraging China's manufacturing capabilities and domestic market. Increasingly, the direction is becoming two-way, with Chinese companies emerging as exporters of innovation and multinational pharmaceutical companies looking to the region for partnerships, licensing opportunities, and novel science. China's advantage is not simply the scale of its domestic market. It is the ability to connect scientific research, capital, clinical development, and manufacturing within an increasingly sophisticated ecosystem. That integration can shorten the distance between promising science and meaningful clinical evidence. India has an opportunity to build its own modelIndia's opportunity is different, but potentially just as significant. The country already possesses many of the ingredients required for a world-class biotechnology ecosystem: researchers, clinicians, engineers, pharmaceutical expertise, a large and diverse patient population, and an expanding startup landscape. India's researchers and clinicians also operate within an unusually diverse patient population, with differences in biology, environment, diet, and disease patterns that can generate insights relevant well beyond the country. India's opportunity, therefore, is not to replicate China's trajectory or reproduce the development models of the US and Europe. It is to build around its own strengths. For years, India's healthcare advantage was largely framed around doing existing things more affordably. The next phase should be about creating things that did not previously exist, whilst developing new models for taking those innovations from research to patients. It should build upon its great track record in frugal innovation and deliver products at scale which are affordable to a large majority of the population globally. India already ranks 12th globally in biotechnology and third in the Asia-Pacific region. Its biotechnology market was valued at approximately US$37.1b ($46b) in 2025, whilst the broader sector is targeting US$300b ($379b) by 2030. But scale alone will not determine whether India becomes a biotech leader. The challenge now is to strengthen the links between academia and industry, deepen pools of risk capital, improve technology transfer, and make the journey from laboratory discovery to clinical validation more predictable. The Asian advantage is connectivityAsia's emerging advantage lies not just in the strength of individual biotech markets, but in how their capabilities complement one another. The region brings together diverse patient populations, growing capital, sophisticated research capabilities, expanding clinical infrastructure, and increasing cross-border collaboration. Japan brings strength in basic science and translational research; Singapore in early-stage innovation; South Korea in advanced biologics manufacturing; China in scale across discovery and development; and India in cost-efficient capabilities and a growing innovation footprint. The opportunity lies in bringing these strengths together. Discovery can happen in one geography, translational research in another, clinical development across multiple populations and commercialisation through global partners. A more connected regional ecosystem could help shorten the path from discovery to delivery, while enabling scientific expertise, capital, clinical capabilities, manufacturing, and commercial partnerships to move across borders. Cell and gene therapy could test this modelCell and gene therapy is one area where this transformation becomes particularly visible. These therapies require much more than scientific discovery. They demand specialised manufacturing, highly trained clinical teams, sophisticated regulatory frameworks, patient identification, and long-term monitoring. The global cell and gene therapy market is projected to grow at a 44% CAGR, from approximately US$8.7b ($10.9b) in 2024 to US$76.03b ($96.8b) by 2030. India is increasingly becoming part of this global movement alongside countries such as the US, China, Japan, and Singapore. Advanced therapies represent a potentially leapfrogging opportunity to build capabilities that extend beyond individual products. Developing them requires specialised researchers, clinical investigators, manufacturing facilities, regulatory expertise, and patient-access mechanisms. Developing these with intent of scalability and affordability can help India develop cost-conscious innovation for the world. For China, the challenge will increasingly be to translate its growing pipeline and development capabilities into therapies that can compete across global markets. A more multipolar biotech futureThe shift underway is not about replacing one biotech centre with another. The US and Europe will continue to drive fundamental discoveries, attract capital, and develop breakthrough technologies, even as new centres of innovation gain influence. For Asia, the opportunity is to turn its growing scientific, clinical, and industrial capabilities into sustained innovation that reaches patients at scale. If that potential is realised, the next era of biotechnology could be shaped by a more connected and multipolar global ecosystem, with Asia playing an increasingly important role in defining its direction.