President of Novartis International Business: China is an excellent place to introduce innovation and seek collaboration

Ask AI · How will Novartis accelerate the global rollout of China’s innovative drugs through BD deals?

Since 2015, driven by multiple forces—including policy, talent, and capital—China’s pharmaceutical innovation has made significant progress. Its innovation momentum and achievements have drawn global attention. In 2026, the year marks the start of the “15th Five-Year Plan period (2026–2030).” The Outline of the “15th Five-Year Plan” calls for accelerating the development of strategic emerging industries such as biopharmaceuticals. The 2026 Government Work Report also proposes “promoting high-quality development of innovative drugs,” and for the first time includes biopharmaceuticals in “emerging pillar industries.”

With macro policy signals continuing to be released and the industry’s positioning further elevated, China’s pharmaceutical innovation is expected to enter a new development window. Against this backdrop, how do multinational pharmaceutical companies that play important roles in China’s pharmaceutical market view this, and what stance will they take to participate in this wave of innovation?

As a multinational pharmaceutical company that has worked deeply in China for many years, Novartis is both a long-term observer of China’s pharmaceutical innovation and a deep participant in China’s pharmaceutical development. Faced with today’s rapidly changing Chinese market, Novartis has a clear plan: on the one hand, continuously bringing global innovative medicines into China more quickly to respond to the growing clinical needs of Chinese patients; on the other hand, leveraging Novartis’s more than 250 years of innovation legacy and commercial strength, it will work with China’s innovative pharmaceutical community through diversified cooperation models, integrating even more deeply into China’s innovation ecosystem.

Recently, Hervé Horber (Patrick Horber), President of Novartis’s International Business Division, said in an interview with reporters from The Paper (澎湃新闻) that innovation is happening on this land in China—and it is high-quality, truly innovative. China is not only “an excellent place to bring innovation in,” but also “an excellent place to seek cooperation,” and Novartis hopes to be viewed here as a most valuable and trustworthy cooperation partner.

President of Novartis’s International Business Division Hervé Horber (Patrick Horber)

Insights on the Leap in Innovation: The China Pharmaceutical Wave as Seen by Multinational Pharma

Horber has more than 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and has been paying attention to China’s pharmaceutical innovation for a long time. As early as 2025 alone, he visited China four times. Such high-frequency multinational travel reflects not only routine business visits, but also the high priority Horber and this multinational pharma giant attach to China’s pharmaceutical innovation wave and market opportunities.

When asked how he views China’s current pharmaceutical innovation environment, Horber did not hesitate to name three keywords: big in scale, fast in pace, and high in quality.

“Big in scale” is first reflected in the activity level of innovative R&D efforts. Clinical trials are a core step for validating the R&D results of innovative drugs, and they also allow one to glimpse a country’s overall level of innovative drug R&D. Currently, the number of clinical trials for innovative drugs from China continues to grow and is further affecting global R&D progress. According to a report released by the international research organization GlobalData, China has already surpassed the United States in the number of clinical trials. In 2024, China registered more than 7,100 clinical trials on the World Health Organization’s international clinical trials registration platform, while the U.S. had about 6,000.

“Fast pace” points to ongoing reforms of China’s drug regulatory system. In the past, the time gap for an innovative drug to be approved and launched in China versus overseas markets often reached several years, or even more than a decade. But thanks to the acceleration of China’s drug review and approval, that gap is narrowing continuously. Horber shared his firsthand experience: five years ago, the conventional global path for approval of a new drug was still “the United States–Europe–Japan–China,” but that pattern has now been broken. Taking Novartis’s innovative drug for chronic spontaneous urticaria as an example, after being approved in the United States only a few weeks earlier, it was approved for launch in China, ahead of the European market.

The most essential transformation is still “high quality.” In early 2026, data released by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) showed that in 2025, China approved 76 innovative drugs for marketing, exceeding 48 in 2024—setting a historical high. In the same year, China’s innovative drug external licensing (BD) deal transaction total exceeded $130 billion, and the number of licensing transactions surpassed 150, also setting records.

“Without truly high-quality innovation, multinational pharmaceutical companies would never invest real money in early-stage assets.” Horber observed that in global innovative drug BD transactions, China’s share of assets has risen from the 5%–10% range years ago to 30%–40% in 2024, and then further climbed to 49% in 2025.

In Horber’s view, the “big, fast, high” characteristics have profoundly changed multinational pharmaceutical companies’ judgment of the China market. This is no longer just an end market for introducing innovative drugs; it has long been “an excellent place for sustained development and for seeking cooperation.”

Expanding the Boundaries of Cooperation: Diverse Open Collaboration to Unlock the Potential of “China Innovation”

Over the past two years, China’s innovative drugs have burnished their reputation globally through dense BD transactions, and Novartis has repeatedly increased its BD investment in China’s innovative drug assets. This includes the acquisition of XinRuiNuo BioPharma (信瑞诺医药), a deal that also makes XinRuiNuo BioPharma the second China biotechnology company to be fully acquired by a multinational pharmaceutical company.

A long-standing concern in China’s pharmaceutical market is whether innovative drugs created in China—once they enter multinational pharma pipelines—can truly be taken to the global stage. Novartis gave a positive answer. With deep medical insights, extensive drug development capabilities, market access and commercialization experience, Novartis is trying to become a “super accelerator” for China’s pharmaceutical innovation to reach international markets.

The core asset of the BD deals above is an innovative product targeting IgA nephropathy. Currently, the product has already been approved in the United States and China, and Novartis is also preparing to submit marketing authorization applications to European regulators.

“We’re helping China’s innovative assets reach more markets. Doctors and patients in the U.S. have started using this medicine, and after approval in Europe, patients there will soon be able to use it as well.” Horber pointed out that this is exactly what BD deals mean: not only benefiting patients worldwide, but also delivering real value back to the local Chinese partners who develop this innovative medicine and to Novartis itself.

With the BD boom in China’s innovative-drug assets continuing into 2026, besides traditional product licensing, diversified cooperation models such as NewCo and Co-Co have also emerged one after another.

“Novartis always approaches China with a very open mindset to look for cooperation opportunities. We might design BD activities around diseases that are more prevalent in Asian populations, and the scope of the deal would involve only Asia. We may jointly promote in China with partners, while Novartis handles promotion in Japan and other Asian markets; or the partner handles promotion in China, and we handle the global markets outside China.” Horber said that Novartis’s cooperation model will be flexibly determined according to the needs of the deal framework, with multiple possibilities—believing this will be an important opportunity for both Novartis and China’s biotech ecosystem.

Strengthening the Foundation of Trust: Contributing Value to “Commitment to China”

The rapid rise of homegrown Chinese pharmaceutical innovation has also brought multinational pharmaceutical companies increasingly realistic competitive pressure during this wave of innovation. For Novartis, this pressure is not necessarily a bad thing; instead, it pushes the company to respond to the China market with faster speed, higher efficiency, and stronger execution. Horber said directly: “This requires Novartis to act faster, deliver better therapies, so that we can be more competitive in China’s market.”

On another front, as Chinese pharmaceutical innovation develops at high speed, Novartis also sees that Chinese patients’ medical needs are constantly changing and upgrading. Novartis’s Chinese name conveys the meaning of “commitment to China”—by continuously innovating products and services to improve the health level and quality of life of the Chinese people. This is also the key original intention behind pushing Novartis to “bring global innovation to China faster.”

Thanks to ongoing optimization of China’s drug review and approval policies, Novartis is also accelerating the introduction of global cutting-edge therapies into China and achieving commercial launch. Moreover, Novartis is also tightly seizing the benefits of healthcare insurance reform to fully promote drug accessibility. For example, four newly approved indications in the first half of 2025 were successfully included in the National Reimbursement Drug List in December 2025, and from January 2026 onward, they were rolled out with reimbursement coverage.

“Approved in the first half, included in national insurance in the second half, and reimbursable by January of the next year”—this timeline is Novartis’s answer to the competitive pressures it faces in the China market. By continuously refreshing the “China speed” for bringing top global therapies to the country, Novartis not only strengthens its own market competitiveness, but also allows Chinese patients to access global cutting-edge treatment options more quickly.

In 2025, Novartis had 13 new products and new indications approved in China. In terms of performance, China has become Novartis’s second-largest market globally. In 2025, Novartis China business grew by 8%, placing it among the leaders in growth rate among multinational pharmaceutical companies. According to IQVIA’s statistics on prescription drug sales through hospital channels for the full year 2025, Novartis ranks second among multinational pharmaceutical companies in China.

Entering 2026, Novartis has also been granted two new indications in China, including a monotherapy indication for a cholesterol-lowering drug. Currently, cardiovascular diseases are the “number one killer” leading to deaths among Chinese residents, and long-term standardized lipid management still faces major challenges. The approval of this new indication is strong evidence that Novartis is targeting a gap in Chinese patients’ needs.

Besides accelerating the introduction of innovative products, Novartis is also increasing capacity construction in China. In July 2024, Novartis began construction on its radioligand therapy production base in Haicang County, Zhejiang Province (海盐), with a total investment of 600 million yuan. In October 2025, the project successfully completed main-structure completion. Once completed, Novartis’s radioligand therapy drugs will be produced locally in Haining (海盐).

Novartis China’s Haicang radioligand therapy production base successfully topped out in May 2025, and completed main-structure completion in October of the same year.

Horber said that in the future Novartis will continue to maintain its pace, bringing the best innovative products to China. At the same time, Novartis is also actively considering further strengthening its R&D capabilities in China and continuously stepping up efforts to expand its capacity in the country.

At this new historical node at the start of the “15th Five-Year Plan” era, with more than 250 years of global innovation foundation, Novartis is aligning and resonating with China’s rapidly rising pharmaceutical and biotech ecosystem. Through a more deeply engaged posture, it is closely connecting with China’s innovative pharmaceutical ecosystem, ultimately pointing to Novartis’s long-term vision: to become China’s most valuable and most trustworthy pharmaceutical and healthcare cooperation partner.

In Horber’s view, this trust does not come out of thin air. It is built on every acceleration in bringing new drugs to market, every capacity project brought to fruition, and every win-win cooperation through BD deals.

“Whether facing a large patient population or doctors on the front line of the clinic, Novartis is building this trust through concrete actions.” Horber said. Novartis hopes to convey a message: in this era full of change and opportunities, when facing any health challenge and unmet medical needs, Novartis will do so in a posture of trust—driven by innovation to create value—co-building a healthier future with all sectors of Chinese society.