(Yicai) Sept. 5 -- About one-third of the global innovative drugs are from China, according to the vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission.

More than 30 percent of the world’s total number of innovative drugs, drugs in the pipeline, and new drugs on the market come from China, Xiang Libin said at the 17th China Bioindustry Conference yesterday.

The National Medical Products Administration approved 93 new drugs in China last year, the highest in the past five years, according to a report on the development of the Chinese bioeconomy released by Gao Fu, president of the Chinese Society of Biotechnology, at the conference.

China has become the world’s second-largest biopharmaceutical market and is gradually expanding overseas while meeting domestic demand.

China had the second-highest number of medicines in development last year, with four of the top 25 pharmaceutical companies by research and development pipeline size being Chinese, setting a new record, according to the report.

Based on the proportion of self-developed new drugs, China’s Hengrui Pharmaceuticals ranked first in the world.

China also took the lead in the medical device field, accounting for 70 percent of the world’s 133,725 medical device patent applications filed last year, the report showed.

China’s bioeconomy is the largest in the world and continues to grow, according to the report. The country has 23 biotechnology industry bases, Xiang said, noting that the added value of the bioeconomy accounts for more than 7 percent of its gross domestic product.

The output value of its bio-based materials and chemicals has exceeded CNY1 trillion (USD140.1 billion), Xiang added.

The global bioeconomy has a scale of about USD4 trillion to USD5 trillion and is expected to expand to USD30 trillion by 2050, with a compound annual growth rate of 8.6 percent, according to the report.

Editor: Futura Costaglione