Sheer volume of studies and fierce competition to recruit and enroll required numbers of patients in trials, even in a populous country like China, can quickly jack up new drug development costs.

Frank Zhang, co-founder and chair of the Hong Kong-listed Chinese biotech Genscript, parent of Nasdaq-listed cell therapy star, Legend Biotech, has been detained by Chinese authorities, along with four employees.

Confidence in growing in-house commercial capabilities has recently prompted several Chinese pharmas, including Simcere and 3SBio, to focus on obtaining domestic rights to novel drug assets developed by other China-based biotechs, rather than pursuing international deals.