CHINA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Min Zhu, Ya-ling (Michelle) Gon, Yang (Aaron) Gu, Chai Lu, Ying Li and Shiye Yuan, Han Kun Law Offices
CNY5 million, while individual liable parties such as legal representatives and key responsible persons are subject to a maximum fine of CNY1 million. In-depth retrospective anti-corruption drive in the pharmaceutical industry On 26 December 2025, the CCDI and the National Supervisory Commission (NSC) announced that Gao Yuwen, former Party Committee Secretary and Chair- man of China National Pharmaceutical Group Health Industry Co, Ltd, was suspected of serious discipli- nary and legal violations. He is currently under disci- plinary review by the CCDI and the NSC’s Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group stationed at China General Technology (Group) Holding, Ltd, and under supervisory investigation by the Tianjin Municipal Supervisory Commission. Per public records, Mr Gao stepped down in 2021; yet, four years after his depar- ture, he remains subject to CCDI and NSC review and investigation over alleged serious disciplinary and legal breaches. This illustrates the prolonged account- ability of officials or HCPs to maintain high ethical and compliance standards during their tenures. Significant Shifts in Biopharmaceutical Intellectual Property (IP) Protection in China (2025) In 2025, China’s biopharmaceutical patents witnessed four core shifts: improved quality, optimised structure, strengthened protection and booming transactions. This marked an accelerated transition from quantita- tive accumulation to a qualitative leap. Sustained growth, and continuous improvement, in patent quality According to the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), in 2025, China ranked among the top ten for the first time in the Global Innovation Index published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and ranked first worldwide for three consecutive years in terms of the number of global top-100 science and technology clusters. In terms of statistics, China granted 972,000 inven- tion patents, 1,461,000 utility model patents and 666,000 design patents in 2025. A total of 96,000 patent re-examinations and invalidation cases were closed. The examination period for invention patents was shortened to 15 months, with a case-closing
accuracy rate of 95.6%. China received 78,000 PCT international patent applications. Chinese applicants filed 2,844 international design applications via the Hague Agreement. By the end of 2025, the number of valid domestic invention patents in China reached 5.32 million, and the number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 people hit 16. The added value of patent-intensive industries accounted for 13.38% of GDP in 2024. Upgraded CNIPA examination standards With the in-depth implementation of the Three-Year Action Plan for Improving the Quality and Efficiency of Invention Patent Examination , the examination of inventive step for biopharmaceutical applications has become increasingly stringent. Under the Meas- ures for the Administration of Priority Patent Exami- nation , patent applications in national key industries – including energy conservation and environmental protection, next-generation information technology, biotechnology, and high-end equipment manufactur- ing – are eligible for priority examination. IP offices (eg, Beijing IP Protection Centre, Suzhou Municipal Intellectual Property Office) have introduced a dual- matching requirement for classification numbers and keywords. Green channels have been launched for core technologies in national strategic emerging fields such as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), bispecific antibodies and gene editing. Meanwhile, multidiscipli- nary examination teams covering medicine, biology, chemistry and other disciplines have been established to resolve misunderstandings in the technical assess- ment of interdisciplinary technologies. Complete elimination of patent grant subsidies and crackdown on abnormal applications Since China began phasing out fiscal subsidies for patents in 2021, the country fully eliminated direct fiscal subsidies for patent grants in 2025, removing the profit incentive for low-quality applications. As a result, the number of abnormal patent applications in the biopharmaceutical industry dropped by 42% year-on-year. The proportion of core invention patents rose to 32%. The crackdown on abnormal applications has also been intensified, with penalties expanded from application rejection to credit penalties, qualification
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