Key competitive activity originating in China can remain off global pharma teams’ radar for 12 to 18 months when they rely on traditional competitive intelligence approaches. Approximately 40% of drug-licensing deals worldwide now involve Chinese assets, up from below 5% in 2020. Over 50% of 2024 FDA approvals were derived from Chinese IND applications, and Chinese assets represent 30-50% of the pipeline across several next-generation modalities.
China has exploded as a major player in the global healthcare landscape, and this shift has consequences far beyond the country. New mechanisms of action are emerging from Chinese research, local assets are progressing rapidly through clinical development, and manufacturing build-outs can reveal confidence in a product or market. China is also a significant commercial market in its own right, accounting for 25% of the global oncology patient population. This makes the in-country positioning, messaging, and announcements surrounding marketed products important to companies seeking to succeed there.
The challenge for global CI teams is managing the volume and pace of activity in China: determining how to cut through the noise without overlooking key developments. This requires knowing which assets and areas to monitor, where to find the data that matters, and how to interpret its implications for the broader business.
China requires its own intelligence playbook
Applying an established global intelligence model to China will not produce a sufficiently comprehensive picture. Extending the existing scope or tracking more of the same sources still creates blind spots.
China operates through distinct data, access, and communication dynamics. Familiar international databases may not capture what is happening within the country, and Chinese public records can themselves be fragmented or incomplete. Information may lie within China-specific or proprietary platforms, and much of the available content is in Mandarin. The country’s firewalled digital ecosystem also limits the effectiveness of the standard channels usually monitored by global teams. Policy and regulatory shifts can begin changing the landscape before international sources detect them.
Underlying assumptions do not always transfer either. Big-pharma capabilities and alliance management vary considerably there, limiting the value of analogs drawn from other markets. Unlike Western markets, where influence is consolidated into a handful of national KOLs, local investigators and society leaders often wield the bulk of the influence in China.
These barriers can leave global CI teams operating in the dark, with important activity remaining beyond the reach of standard approaches.
Clinical-trial monitoring illustrates the problem
Tracking clinical-trial activity in China demonstrates why conventional methods can fall short. Local companies do not always update global registries, and local secondary sources are often inaccessible internationally.
Even when the same study appears in both Chinese and international trial registries, the records can contain markedly different information. Local records frequently offer deeper insight into investigators, participating institutions, study characteristics, treatment details, and the various names associated with an asset. Comprehensive data is often not distributed across public records and is instead contained in proprietary China-specific platforms. Validating insights through local primary intelligence is critical to forming confident conclusions. However, conducting high-quality primary intelligence in China can be difficult without an in-country presence, native Mandarin speakers, and a strong understanding of the local culture.
This creates practical challenges. Searching under one asset name may fail to uncover activity listed under another. A global database may confirm that a study exists without showing how it is being conducted, where capability is growing, or which institutions are driving its progress. A key health system in one province might treat a certain disease in a specific way, while a health system in another province takes an entirely different approach.
Effective monitoring therefore calls for appropriate in-country resources, access to local databases and platforms, the ability to verify findings through primary intelligence, and local market experience and expertise to interpret the data correctly and draw the right conclusions for the business.
China can no longer sit outside the global CI agenda
There was a time when China’s scale and influence allowed many global teams to give it less weight within broader competitive assessments. That stance has become increasingly difficult to defend.
China is now an established and dominant player in the global healthcare landscape. Whether the focus is BD and licensing, clinical development, or asset commercialization, pharma teams ignore China at their own risk.
A China perspective is needed to understand both what is emerging across the pipeline, including potential BD, M&A, and licensing opportunities or threats, and how the competitive positioning of products already marketed in the country is evolving.
Engaging with such a complex environment can seem daunting. Avoiding it exposes teams to the greater danger.
Building intelligence capabilities for China
Prescient has built deep expertise in China over the past 20 years. We have maintained an in-country presence through our Beijing hub since 2007 and delivered 500+ China-focused projects across multiple therapeutic areas. Continued investment in people, data, and technology has further reinforced that foundation.
Our approach brings together:
- a stronger local footprint in China and deeper Mandarin-language capabilities across other offices;
- increased in-person attendance at Chinese medical congresses;
- access to local, China-specific proprietary databases covering regulatory filings, clinical-trial registries, corporate records, clinical guidelines, patents, and stock-exchange disclosures;
- access to and integration of WeChat monitoring;
- custom AI solutions developed in-house to improve the coverage, extraction, and translation of publicly available Chinese clinical-trial data;
- more extensive primary intelligence capabilities, both in-house and through specialist partnerships;
- connections with China-based investigators, healthcare professionals, policy advisers, and other local stakeholders.
Simply having access to the right data from China is not enough; teams also need to know what to do with it. Not every new trial, policy announcement, manufacturing investment, or competitor statement will change an international strategy. Prescient’s experience and expertise enable us to provide the strategic thought partnership clients need to navigate this complexity, helping them prioritize their efforts, distinguish routine activity from evidence that materially alters an assumption or decision, and connect the most relevant insights to broader business objectives.
Acting before the gap widens
The intelligence gap around China is already significant. Global CI teams cannot simply extend their existing approach to the market; its distinct data, access, and communication dynamics demand a dedicated intelligence playbook.
Biopharma companies can build the necessary infrastructure independently, but doing so requires considerable investment, first-hand knowledge, and time. Even then, access to the right information does not automatically provide the experience and expertise needed to make sense of it. Prescient can tailor its capabilities to the strategic choices each organization needs to make.
Greater visibility into China is a genuine competitive advantage. Without it, teams risk making critical decisions with an incomplete view of the landscape. No organization can compete effectively in a market it cannot see clearly.
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