‘Major breakthroughs’: Chinese biotech firms plan global expansions after domestic success
Strong manufacturing base a driving force behind overseas expansion, but industry leaders and analysts say hurdles remain
With their domestic profits narrowing and production capacity expanding, China’s firms are continuing to widen their overseas footprints in search of new, more lucrative markets. In this series, we examine China Inc.’s next phase of “going global” and the complex, challenging international environment its companies have chosen to enter.
“A lot of our overseas clients have repeatedly told us they want our supply chain and manufacturing to be closer to their markets,” said Guo Henghua, president of Anhui Huaheng Biotechnology, adding that orders from overseas account for about half the company’s total sales.
The state-owned newspaper Economic Daily reported that He Yaqiong, director of the consumer goods department at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told a biomanufacturing forum in September that China now accounted for more than 70 per cent of global fermentation capacity, a key midstream segment of the industry.
But venturing into new spaces means Chinese biotech companies may need to make changes they previously did not have to consider – including sourcing original work to avoid being hit with a patent lawsuit.