Hengrui ranks first in both the China Pharmaceutical Innovation and Invention Indices for the second consecutive year.
- Sino Biopharm and Hansoh climb the Innovation rankings, while CSPC rises five places to second in Invention.
- 3SBio enters the Innovation Top 10 as Kelun-Biotech records the largest climb across the full Innovation ranking.
- China PIII expands in 2026 with Emerging Innovation Stars and the first Innovative Value-leading Product Assessment.
- Global partnerships differentiated R&D and value realization emerge as defining themes across China’s pharmaceutical innovation landscape.
SHANGHAI, CHINA — October 2026 — The 2026 China Pharmaceutical Innovation and Invention Index (China PIII) has been released today, highlighting the pharmaceutical companies and emerging innovators shaping the next phase of China’s rapidly evolving innovation ecosystem.
Building on the first edition of the China PIII launched in 2025, this year’s Index expands its assessment beyond company-level innovation and invention to examine the value generated by individual innovative products. The expanded framework reflects an industry increasingly moving from scale and pipeline accumulation toward differentiated innovation, clinical value, commercial translation and global impact.
The 2026 China PIII identifies Hengrui Pharma as the leading pharmaceutical company in China for both Innovation and Invention for the second consecutive year, reflecting sustained strength across R&D investment, product output, commercialization and international collaboration.
Hengrui’s leadership comes amid continued investment in innovative R&D and growing commercial returns. In 2025, the company invested RMB 8.724 billion in R&D, equivalent to 27.58% of operating revenue, while innovative drug sales reached RMB 16.342 billion, growing 26.09% year-on-year and accounting for 58.34% of drug sales revenue. International expansion also accelerated, including five overseas business development transactions for innovative drugs during the year.
“Hengrui’s position at the forefront of this index – leading it for the second consecutive time – reflects genuine, evidence-based leadership in novel drug development with increasingly global scope and impact. This ranking is not simply a reflection of scale – it is a rigorous assessment of novel science and the ability to bring meaningful medicines to patients. We are proud to honor their achievement and see it as a signal of what China’s innovation ecosystem is capable of on the world stage.”
John Barry, Executive Vice President Corporate Development & Strategy at SAI
China’s innovation leaders increasingly combine R&D strength with commercial execution. Beyond Hengrui, the 2026 rankings demonstrate growing momentum among companies successfully translating sustained R&D investment into differentiated medicines, commercial outcomes and global partnerships.
Sino Biopharm climbed one position to rank second in Innovation and third in Invention, reflecting the rising contribution of innovative products to its business alongside continued R&D investment and the integration of external innovation.
Hansoh Pharma rose two places to third in Innovation, supported by growth in innovative drug revenue, maturation of its late-stage pipeline and progress in overseas licensing and registration.
Innovent Biologics ranked fourth in both Innovation and Invention, while Akeso reached fifth in Innovation. RemeGen and Simcere followed in sixth and seventh respectively, with Simcere climbing three places in Innovation and six in Invention. CSPC ranked eighth in Innovation but rose five places to second in Invention, highlighting the strength and depth of its future pipeline. 3SBio was a notable new entrant to the top 10 assessment, reaching ninth in Innovation. Its performance followed a pivotal year in which the company entered a global development and commercialization collaboration with Pfizer for its proprietary PD-1/VEGF bispecific antibody SSGJ-707, with a total potential transaction value exceeding USD 6 billion.
Across the complete Top 30, Kelun-Biotech was the largest climber in Innovation, rising nine places to 19th, while the Invention ranking saw particularly significant movement from companies including Haisco, which climbed 13 places to enter the Top 10.
China’s pharmaceutical innovation becomes increasingly global.
The findings also point to a shift in how Chinese pharmaceutical innovation is participating in the global ecosystem. International recognition is increasingly extending beyond individual assets toward proprietary technology platforms, portfolios and companies’ ability to generate differentiated innovation on a sustained basis.
Hengrui’s multi-asset strategic collaboration with GSK, CSPC’s international partnerships around both assets and technology platforms, Innovent’s global strategic collaboration with Takeda, and international transactions involving companies including 3SBio, Kelun-Biotech and Simcere illustrate an increasingly diverse range of approaches to global value creation.
“The innovative pharma and biotech companies in China are going through the three stages of globalization. The first stage is to get a ticket, i.e. through big deals, the second stage is to develop global clinical development capabilities, and the third stage is commercialization. Most of the innovative pharma and biotech companies in China are currently in stage one and approaching stage two. We expect to see the market leaders enter stage three in the coming 3-5 years.”
Celia Deng, Asia President at SAI
The Index concludes that Chinese companies are taking increasingly diverse roles in global pharmaceutical innovation, while noting that sustained international influence will depend on high-quality clinical evidence, efficient international registration and commercialization, and consistent delivery of patient benefit.
Emerging innovators signal the next wave of Chinese innovation.
The 2026 China PIII also identifies a group of Emerging Pharmaceutical Innovation Stars, designed to highlight younger companies demonstrating high innovation potential through frontier technologies, advancing pipelines and emerging value-realization capabilities.
The five selected Emerging Innovation Stars are Lepu Biopharma, GenFleet Therapeutics, Harbour BioMed, Minghui Pharmaceutical and Alphamab Oncology. Their technologies span ADCs and bispecific ADCs, fully human heavy-chain antibodies, multispecific antibodies and small molecules targeting the RAS pathway.
The assessment also demonstrates the potential for emerging innovators to develop rapidly into more established industry players. Three companies featured among the previous year’s emerging innovators – Mabwell, Zelgen and DualityBio Pharmaceuticals – progressed into the 2026 Top 30 for Innovation Capability.
China’s innovation ecosystem reaches new scale.
Across the Top 30 companies assessed in the 2026 China PIII, approximately 987 drugs are in development across nearly 2,000 clinical studies, including 660 Phase I, 848 Phase II and 483 Phase III trials, alongside 57 marketing applications. The companies collectively recorded approximately USD 8.5 billion in global R&D investment, equivalent to 23% of total revenue. The Index also recorded 137 innovation designations across the assessed companies, including 72 Breakthrough Therapies, 40 Fast Track and 16 Priority Review designations.
Looking ahead, the China PIII identifies original innovation, value translation and international collaboration as central to the next stage of the industry’s development.
As China enters the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the Index anticipates continued evolution toward globally competitive technologies and products, while highlighting the need for companies to strengthen differentiated R&D, global clinical development, commercialization and patient access. Full results from the 2026 China Pharmaceutical Innovation and Invention Index and whitepaper can be found at
www.ideapharma.com/pii/report/china/
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About the China Pharmaceutical Innovation and Invention Index
The China Pharmaceutical Innovation and Invention Index (China PIII) provides an independent assessment of pharmaceutical innovation in China, combining the global assessment methods of the Pharmaceutical Innovation and Invention Index with indicators designed to reflect the characteristics of the Chinese pharmaceutical market.
The Innovation Index seeks to answer the question: “If two pharmaceutical companies were given the same molecule at an early stage, which one would be better able to develop it and successfully bring it to market?” It examines companies’ ability to create value from their R&D pipelines and translate innovation into commercial success, including measures such as innovative drug revenue, approvals and major R&D milestones.
The Invention Index provides a more forward-looking assessment, examining future potential through factors including pipeline size, clinical trial progress, R&D investment, innovative regulatory designations and patent portfolios.
First launched in 2025, the China PIII was developed to combine international benchmarking experience with the characteristics of China’s pharmaceutical innovation environment. The 2026 edition expands this framework to assess both innovative companies and innovative products.
About IDEA Pharma, a Division of SAI MedPartners (SAI)
IDEA Pharma, a Division of SAI, is a global practice, recognized as the leading experts in pharmaceutical innovation, path-to-market strategy, and strategic positioning. IDEA Pharma was acquired by SAI in November 2024, and as part of the wider portfolio of companies, is able to offer additional capabilities, including Market Research, Competitor Benchmarking, and Competitor Intelligence.
IDEA Pharma and SAI have a global practice with offices in London (UK), Reading (US), Waltham (US) and Shanghai (China).
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