China remains a focus for Cytiva, as it is an important market with rapid growth and sound supply chain resilience, and accelerating localization in the country is one of its crucial global priorities, a senior executive of the global life sciences company said.

"After years of rapid growth, China's biopharma industry has entered a period of adjustment, but in the long run, this industry will continue to grow, and I believe that more and more Chinese innovative drugs will enter the international market and benefit patients worldwide," said Li Lei, president of Cytiva in China.

"The aging population and vibrant innovation ecosystem provide long-term growth drivers to our industry. We are here for the long run."

Leveraging its parent company Danaher's "Launching China" strategy, Cytiva will continuously step up localization to strengthen research and development and manufacturing capacity, while collaborating with all stakeholders from academia to industry peers to create a robust ecosystem for future growth in the country, he said.

Cytiva's 2023 Global Biopharma Resilience Index showed that 83 percent of survey respondents in China agree that the country is quite or very effective at integrating and making use of advanced digital technologies associated with the advanced pharmaceutical sector, bringing great competitive advantages.

In China, the company offers a wide range of technologies and end-to-end solutions to enable smart biomanufacturing, and has built a digital service center empowered by augmented reality and virtual reality, and the industrial internet of things to safeguard customers' R&D and production round the clock.

To support more Chinese innovative drugs, the company expanded its R&D facility in Shanghai last year and set up a new accelerator for novel therapies that uses its biomolecule R&D and GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) pilot manufacturing platforms to facilitate the development and manufacturing of new drugs.

The company also attaches great importance to talent resources in China. It has expanded its training capacity and is now capable of training 2,000 people every year in the country. Besides, its online training platform has more than 40,000 registered members.

"China is the world's second-largest economy and the second-largest market for biopharmaceuticals. As China deepens its opening-up policies, cooperation between Chinese and foreign enterprises in biopharma will become closer, and the flow of technology, talent and capital will become more convenient," Li said.

Foreign enterprises can better share in the economic growth of China through deeper cooperation here and achieve a win-win future with the country, he said, adding that the ability of Chinese companies to go overseas will also continue to improve, allowing more innovative drugs to benefit not only patients in China but also around the world.

"The market value of publicly listed Chinese biotech companies has grown from $1 billion in 2016 to $180 billion in 2021. The growth of the market has given us the confidence to further develop in China," Li said.

"We will pay more attention to the changing needs of our customers and better serve them with more innovative solutions. Meanwhile, we will keep our focus on novel therapies, as well as digitalization and automation solutions to facilitate the high-quality development of China's economy."

Nie Pingxiang, a researcher at the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said that multinational companies in China are increasingly focusing on research and development, strategic emerging industries, and future industries. "That indicates that China, in its pursuit of high-quality economic development, places greater emphasis on encouraging technological innovation and the growth of strategic emerging and future industries," Nie said.

"Multinational companies also maintain a positive outlook on China's long-term growth potential and strategic importance. All of this contributes to stabilizing and enhancing the quality of foreign investment inflows in the country."