If you are paying attention to healthcare, you will notice an interesting change: a few years ago, when discussing innovative drugs, everyone was saying, “What is available overseas, we will follow suit”; but as 2025 begins, the narrative has changed.The National Medical Products Administration approved 43 innovative drugs in the first half of the year, with over 90% being domestically produced; a dual-antibody from 3SBio was sold to Pfizer for an upfront payment of $1.25 billion; and CAR-T therapy for solid tumors from Kintor Pharmaceutical is about to be launched, with global patients waiting for the Chinese solution.
This is not just a collection of “good news” but a signal that the industry has reached a “historic turning point.” Biomedicine in 2025 is accelerating from a “major country in innovative drugs” to a “strong country in innovative drugs” under the triple resonance of policy, capital, and technology.
Today, we will break down the core logic of this track: how does the macro environment provide support? Where are the breakthroughs in industry transformation? How can ordinary people seize opportunities?
1. Macro Triple Play: Economic Support, Policy Breakthroughs, Demand Expansion, the Industry Reaches a New Starting Point
Biomedicine is not an isolated track; its explosion is supported by the “big environment.” Three key data points for 2025 have already set the stage for the industry:
The first is the economic fundamentals. In the first half of the year, domestic GDP grew by 5.3% year-on-year, which seems stable, but the growth rate of the added value of high-tech industries reached 9.5%—with biomedicine being one of the core engines. For example, Heng Rui Medicine raised nearly 10 billion Hong Kong dollars through its listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, directly driving a 42.8% year-on-year increase in industry financing. This indicates that capital’s confidence in biomedicine is not about “speculating on concepts” but is anchored in the positioning of “new momentum.”
The second is the acceleration of policies. In the past, clinical approval for innovative drugs took 60 days; by 2025, it will be compressed to 30 days, with Beijing’s pilot program averaging even 23.8 days for approval; more critically, the dual-track payment of “medical insurance + commercial insurance”: medical insurance covers the basics (optimizing centralized procurement to avoid a focus on low prices), while commercial insurance covers high-end (the soon-to-be-implemented Class C catalog, covering high-value drugs like CAR-T). Policies are no longer about “control” but about “facilitation”—controlling the cost of living while leaving enough profit space for innovation.
The third is the hard demand gap. The population aged 60 and above already accounts for 22% of the country, and the demand for tumors, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases brought about by aging is expanding every year; more critically, the growth rate of residents’ medical and health expenditures is 3.4%. Although this is not high, the willingness for “precision treatment” is rising—for example, the global sales of semaglutide reached $7.86 billion in the first half of the year, with an 83% growth rate in weight loss indications, and the launch of Innovent’s mazdutide was met with a rush for prescriptions.
These three forces combined act as a “booster” for biomedicine: the economy provides capital, policies provide efficiency, and demand provides the market. The industry is no longer taking “small steps” but is now “running fast.”
2. Core Breakthroughs in the Industry: From “R&D Following” to “Going Global for Monetization,” Three Changes Rewrite the Rules of Competition
If the macro environment is the “foundation,” then the industry’s own transformation is the “high-rise.” The most critical breakthroughs in biomedicine in 2025 are concentrated in three directions:
1. R&D: From “Clustered Tumors” to “Multiple Blossoms,” Domestic Innovation Takes the Lead
In recent years, innovative drug R&D has almost been dominated by “tumors”; 2025 is different—
In the first half of the year, among the 43 domestically approved Class 1 innovative drugs, tumor drugs accounted for 40.7% (still the main force), but endocrine, autoimmune, and neurological fields are beginning to emerge: Innovent’s mazdutide (weight loss/diabetes) and Heng Rui’s amivantamab (autoimmune) are both targeting “large market varieties” with millions of patients.
More importantly, the “approval efficiency” has improved: in the past, it took 5-7 years for a new drug to go from clinical trials to market; now, clinical trial approvals have sped up by 50%, and some blockbuster drugs can even achieve “synchronous application in China and the US.” For example, CanSino Biologics’ PD-1 monoclonal antibody was approved by the US FDA in April, and it will soon be available domestically—this was unimaginable in the past.
2. Going Global: From “Financing-Driven” to “Monetization-Driven,” Chinese Assets Compete Globally
Before 2024, China’s innovative drugs going global were mostly “small-scale operations”; by 2025, there will be a direct “quantum leap”:
In the first half of the year, License-out (external authorization) reached 72 deals, totaling $48.4 billion, which is more than the total for all of 2024; among them, 16 transactions had a single deal amount exceeding $1 billion, with 3SBio’s PD-1/VEGF dual antibody and Hansoh Pharmaceutical’s GLP-1/GIP dual antibody being sought after by international giants like Pfizer and Regeneron.
The underlying logic has changed: previously, going global was about “lacking funds, seeking investment”; now it is about “having technology, selling rights.” China’s technology in ADC (antibody-drug conjugates), dual antibodies, and CGT (cell and gene therapy) has reached a level comparable to that of overseas— for example, Kintor Pharmaceutical’s Claudin18.2 CAR-T, which has a clinical remission rate of over 60% for gastric cancer, has no similar competitors globally.
3. Technology: ADC, AI, CAR-T, Three Major Tracks Restructuring the R&D Paradigm
The competition in biomedicine is essentially a competition of “technological gaps.” In 2025, three technological directions are particularly noteworthy:
- ADC (Antibody-Drug Conjugates)is expected to exceed $30 billion in the global market this year, with China contributing over 30% of the clinical pipeline. Heng Rui and Rongchang Biologics’ ADCs have already been sold overseas, with targets expanding from HER2 (breast cancer) to CLDN18.2 (gastric cancer) and B7-H3 (lung cancer), potentially producing “billion-dollar-level” domestic varieties in the next five years;
- AI Drug Developmentis no longer a “concept” but is becoming a reality. Insilico Medicine’s anti-pulmonary fibrosis drug took only 14 months from target discovery to Phase II clinical trials (traditional processes take 3-4 years), and the clinical data is better than placebo—this is the world’s first AI-driven drug throughout the entire process, expected to be launched in 2028;
- Solid Tumor CAR-Tpreviously only treated hematological tumors (leukemia, lymphoma); by 2025, it will aim to “conquer solid tumors.” Kintor Pharmaceutical’s Claudin18.2 CAR-T and Origene’s GPC3 CAR-T (for liver cancer) are both showing “revolutionary efficacy” in clinical trials, and once approved, will rewrite the treatment rules for gastric and liver cancers.
3. Talent Restructuring: Localization Return, Demand Differentiation, Career Choices Shift, Workplace Logic Changes
As the industry changes, the talent market will naturally change as well. The talent landscape in biomedicine in 2025 shows three obvious trends:
1. Executive Return: Multinational Pharmaceutical Companies Localize, Domestic Companies Compete for “International Talent”
In the past, the presidents of multinational pharmaceutical companies (MNCs) in China were often “foreigners or people from Hong Kong and Taiwan”; by 2025, this will be different—
Executives like Qian Jiang from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Liu Yan from Takeda, and Li Yao from Novartis all have experience in domestic pharmaceutical companies; conversely, domestic companies are also competing for “international talent”: BeiGene poached the former president of Takeda China to be its regional general manager, and Heng Rui hired the former general manager of AstraZeneca China as COO.
The reason is simple: the policies in the Chinese market (medical insurance negotiations, centralized procurement) and patient demands (disease spectrum different from Europe and the US) require people who “understand the local context” to operate; while domestic companies going global need people who “understand international rules” to interface with the FDA and EMA (European Medicines Agency).
2. Demand Differentiation: “R&D Increases, Sales Decrease,” Talent in Innovative Fields is Highly Competitive
The overall talent market is “tightening in total volume,” but structurally “uneven”:
- Hot fieldssuch as early-stage R&D (biology, preclinical pharmacology), clinical operations (overseas multi-center studies), AI drug development (large model algorithms), and BD (business development) have seen job demand increase by 30%-50% year-on-year. For example, an AI drug development director can earn an annual salary of 1-1.5 million, yet it is still hard to find candidates;
- Cold fieldssuch as traditional sales and generic drug production have seen job reductions of 10%-20%. Some pharmaceutical companies have also laid off staff, mostly concentrated in “non-innovative business lines”; it is not due to a lack of funds, but rather a “strategic focus.”
3. Career Choice Shift: From “Looking at Salary” to “Looking at Development,” Stability Becomes a New Demand
In the past, pharmaceutical professionals looking for jobs would first ask, “What is the annual salary?” By 2025, they are more concerned with three questions:
1. Does the company have any “blockbuster drugs” in the pipeline? (The product’s prospects are more important than the scale);2. Is there a career development path? (69.2% of people aged 31-40 list this as their primary consideration);3. Can the work location be stable? (43.9% of people are unwilling to work in different locations, which is 15% higher than last year).
This reflects the rationality of the “industry adjustment period”: people are no longer pursuing “short-term high salaries” but rather “long-term stability”—after all, in the field of innovative drugs, following a promising pipeline can yield returns (stocks, promotions) in 3-5 years that may be more important than current salaries.
4. Opportunities for Ordinary People: Seizing These 3 Gaps is More Important than “Blindly Jumping Jobs”
Whether you are a newcomer to the industry or a veteran looking to transition, the opportunities in biomedicine in 2025 lie not in “blindly following trends” but in “precise matching.” Three directions are worth focusing on:
1. Key Position Gaps: These 5 Types of Talent are Most Scarce
According to industry research, the positions with the largest gaps in 2025 are:
- AI Drug Development Engineer— a compound talent who understands large models and drug development, with an annual salary of 800,000-1,200,000;
- Overseas Clinical Operations— familiar with FDA/EMA regulations and capable of managing multi-center studies, with an annual salary of 600,000-1,000,000;
- ADC/CGT R&D— with successful cases from PCC (preclinical candidate) to IND (clinical application), with an annual salary of 500,000-800,000;
- BD (Business Development)— with overseas licensing experience and capable of closing large deals, with an annual salary of 1,000,000-1,500,000;
- Market Access— knowledgeable in medical insurance negotiations and commercial insurance connections, with an annual salary of 400,000-800,000.
The commonality of these positions is that they require a “dual drive of technology + resources”; they cannot be filled solely by “experience” but require “hard skills” (such as AI tools, regulatory knowledge) + “soft resources” (such as international connections, clinical resources).
2. Salary Trends: Working 10-15 Years is the “Golden Period” for Salary Increases
Data shows that the salary increase of pharmaceutical professionals is highly correlated with years of work:
- 1-3 years: salary increases are mostly 10%-30%, mainly relying on “entry-level abilities”;
- 5-10 years: 30%-50% salary increases are achieved by 13.95%, relying on “project experience”;
- 10-15 years: over 50% salary increases are achieved by 15.91%, marking the “golden period”—individuals in this stage are either technical experts (such as ADC R&D leaders) or executives (such as R&D directors) who can directly create value for the company.
3. Personal Breakthrough: Don’t Just Focus on “Positions,” Pay Attention to “Technological Trends”
Biomedicine is evolving too quickly, and relying on a “single skill” can easily lead to obsolescence. What ordinary people need to do is to “anchor technological trends and fill capability gaps”:
- For those in R&D: learn AI tools (such as using AlphaFold to predict protein structures) and understand international regulations (FDA’s AI approval framework);
- For those in clinical roles: focus on overseas multi-center studies (MRCT) and learn real-world data (RWS) analysis;
- For those in sales: shift from “selling products” to “selling solutions” (for example, combining commercial insurance for patient management).
Conclusion: In 2025, the “Long Run” of Biomedicine is Just Beginning
Many people ask: Is biomedicine a “bubble”? The answer for 2025 is very clear: no.
Because the growth of this industry is not driven by capital speculation but by real support from “clinical demand” (aging), “technological breakthroughs” (ADC/AI/CAR-T), and “policy support” (approval + payment).
For companies, the competition in the next five years will be a competition of “source innovation” and “global operations”—being able to produce good drugs that do not exist globally and sell them worldwide is the only way to survive;
For individuals, opportunities do not lie in “blindly jumping jobs” but in “deepening technology”—seizing tracks like ADC, AI, and CGT, and enhancing international and digital capabilities to keep pace with the industry’s “fast-running” rhythm.
Biomedicine in 2025 is no longer a “game for a few” but an “opportunity for all.”
All data and insights in this article are sourced from the latest biomedicine industry report.
If you need the original report PDF and more related reports,long press the image below to scan the code
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