Asia’s biotech moment: From regional strength to global impact

AT THIS year’s JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco – the largest annual investment gathering in the global healthcare industry – one theme stood out: Asia is no longer peripheral to global biotech but is central to it.

The region is playing an increasingly pivotal role in how new medicines are discovered, developed and brought to patients worldwide. 

What is changing is not only where innovation originates, but also how it moves across borders. Asia is building the connective tissue that enables faster clinical development, benefiting from the region’s vast and diverse patient population, greater regulatory alignment, deeper capital pools and increasingly sophisticated cross-border partnerships.

“Bridging East and West” is no longer just a metaphor; it is also becoming a replicable operating model for global biopharma.

The data reinforces this shift. A recent McKinsey report described Asia as the “emerging epicentre” of global biopharmaceutical progress. It also noted that the region has expanded its share of the global innovative pipeline from 28 to 43 per cent in just five years, contributing more than 85 per cent of global pipeline growth in 2024.

China alone now represents close to 30 per cent of the world’s innovative pipeline. 

Three forces are driving Asia’s emergence as a global biotech engine: policy and ecosystem enablement, differentiated operating models, and cross-border platforms that translate regional innovation into global impact.

Policy and ecosystem enablement: Building foundations for innovation

Asia’s biotech rise has not been driven by talent and capital alone. Governments across the region have made biotech a strategic priority, enacting policy and ecosystem changes that reduce friction throughout the innovation life cycle, from clinical trials and approvals to capital formation and data infrastructure. 

In China, a series of regulatory reforms and increasing alignment with global standards have shortened approval timelines and improved clinical development.

As regulatory frameworks mature and become increasingly interoperable with global counterparts, they enhance confidence among global partners and support more cross-border development strategies.

Singapore represents yet another model. Through long-term Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) programmes, the government has committed tens of billions of US dollars to science and biomedical research, bridging academia and industry.

Institutions such as the Agency for Science, Technology and Research and hubs including Biopolis have created a translational ecosystem that punches above its weight in early-stage innovation, supported by the country’s robust intellectual property protection, advanced digital infrastructure and regulatory credibility.

South Korea has designated biopharma as a national strategic technology and committed significant funding to drug development, while enabling early-stage initial public offerings on the Kosdaq. 

Japan, long anchored in deep science, has continued to lead Asia in novel drug approvals by the US Food and Drug Administration between 2015 and 2023, supported by initiatives such as the Sakigake pathway to accelerate priority reviews. 

Together, these complementary capabilities form a distributed innovation system rather than a single national model.

Differentiated operating models: Speed, capital efficiency and platform building

Beyond policy, Asia’s biotech rise is also a story of evolving business models.

Historically, many Asian biotech firms have relied on out-licensing to monetise innovation without building heavy overseas infrastructure. Today, a growing share of global licensing and alliance transactions involves China-originated assets, particularly in advanced modalities such as multi-specific antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates.

Global pharmaceutical companies, facing patent cliffs and persistent research and development (R&D) productivity pressures, increasingly look to Asia to replenish pipelines – often with assets that are not only differentiated, but also developed with notable speed and capital efficiency.

At the same time, strategic partnerships and co-development models are becoming more sophisticated. Asian companies are retaining regional rights while accessing global capital and commercial networks, creating shared-risk structures that can accelerate globalisation without overextending balance sheets.

This is where the “investor-operator” approach becomes essential.

In my experience, capital and operational capability must go hand in hand. Rather than acting solely as financial sponsors, investor-operators partner management teams to build integrated platforms spanning R&D, manufacturing and commercialisation, helping companies scale what works, institutionalise operational excellence and compete on the global stage.

As industry consolidation accelerates, such platform builders may play a larger role in helping companies move from expansion to integration while strengthening productivity and competitiveness.

Cross-border platforms: Translating innovation East to West

The third and perhaps most important force is the emergence of cross-border platforms that connect Asia-origin innovation with global markets.

Over the past year, activity in alliances, as well as in mergers and acquisitions, between Asian and Western biopharma companies has risen markedly, with Scrip Intelligence noting 77 such transactions in China alone. 

Asian firms are no longer merely importers of technology. They are becoming exporters, capable of developing globally relevant assets and advancing them through international regulatory and commercial pathways.

In this context, cross-border platforms serve as the “translation layer” between ecosystems: combining Asia’s development efficiency and expanding scientific output with Western regulatory expectations, clinical standards and commercial reach. 

At NovaBridge Biosciences, where I serve as chairman, we have sought to institutionalise this model by evolving into a global biotech platform that connects Eastern development efficiency and scientific innovation with Western regulatory and commercial pathways.

An asset discovered in China, for example, may generate compelling preclinical data through cost-effective local development. NovaBridge can then help de-risk the asset for global pharmaceutical partners by translating that innovation to meet international standards.

The broader implication is clear: Asia offers scalable, cost-efficient innovation models that can serve both domestic and global healthcare needs.

The takeaway

Asia’s ascent reflects the convergence of these three structural strengths: sustained policy and ecosystem enablement; operating models that combine capital with executional depth; and cross-border platforms that translate regional strengths into global impact. 

The result is not simply stronger Asian biotech companies, but also a more resilient and interconnected global R&D ecosystem – one that narrows the gap between discovery and delivery, and ultimately brings more accessible and affordable therapies to patients worldwide.

By building the right bridges, Asia’s biotech moment can become not just a regional story, but a global one.

The writer is chief executive officer at CBC Group