Notable new entrants moved into the Asia 100 this year, with growth catalyzed by COVID-19 vaccines.

The annual reimbursement price negotiations between pharma firms and China’s National Healthcare Security Administration are just around the corner. While some have chosen to walk away from the process completely, others including majors BeiGene and Hengrui are girding up for another round of potentially deep cuts.

Pent-up trial demand during 2020 plus trial modernization strategies yields bumper performance in 2021 as research priorities revert to pre-pandemic trends.

China's biopharma firms including Hengrui Medicine and HUTCHMED actively pursue licensing partners for their drug assets as the economic downturn caused by domestic COVID flare-ups continues worsening. Meanwhile, there are some predictions that smaller biotechs in the country may need to tap into multinationals' deep pockets to raise new funds.