China’s innovative pharmaceutical sector has made substantial progress in recent years, but its presence in global markets remains limited, underscoring the urgency for drugmakers to accelerate their overseas expansion, according to Zhang Hao, head of the international business department at 3SBio Inc, on Friday during the 2025 T-EDGE Conference.

Zhang said that while a growing number of Chinese companies have developed novel therapies with competitive clinical data, only a small handful are currently able to market products directly in overseas markets. Most firms still rely heavily on local partners or agents to conduct international sales, a model that constrains brand building, pricing power and long-term market penetration.

“The question is no longer whether Chinese innovative drugs should go global, but how fast and how deeply they can integrate into overseas markets,” Zhang said. “Whether companies choose to ‘borrow a ship to go overseas’ by partnering with established multinationals, or to ‘build their own ship’ by setting up independent international operations, the ultimate goal is the same: to penetrate and capture global markets.”