On December 7, the "2025 High-Quality Development Conference for Innovative Drugs," jointly organized by the Guangzhou Municipal People's Government and the Guangdong Provincial Medical Insurance Administration, was successfully held at the Guangzhou Baiyun International Convention Center. Zhang Ke, Party Secretary and Director of the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA), and Chen Liangxian, member of the Party Leadership Group of the Guangdong Provincial Government, attended the conference and delivered speeches. Participants included officials from the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the National Health Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Medical Products Administration, the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Guangdong Provincial Government, and the Guangzhou Municipal Government; heads of medical insurance departments from provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government) and cities within Guangdong; and representatives from research institutions, universities, laboratories, pharmaceutical companies, medical institutions, investors in the pharmaceutical field, and news media, totaling over 1,200 attendees.

Innovative Drug Development Embraces New Opportunities
The development of innovative drugs is crucial for the pharmaceutical industry and people's health and well-being. In June 2025, the NHSA and the National Health Commission jointly issued the "Several Measures to Support the High-Quality Development of Innovative Drugs," proposing 16 initiatives across five areas: strengthening support for innovative drug R&D, supporting the inclusion of innovative drugs in the national medical insurance catalog and commercial health insurance innovative drug catalogs, encouraging the clinical application of innovative drugs, enhancing multi-payer capabilities for innovative drugs, and strengthening organizational safeguards. These measures provide active support for the high-quality development of innovative drugs.

At the conference, relevant national ministries and commissions, the Guangdong Provincial Medical Insurance Administration, and the Guangzhou Municipal Government introduced their work in supporting innovative drug development. The NHSA and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security released the "National Basic Medical Insurance, Maternity Insurance, and Work Injury Insurance Drug List (2025)," and the NHSA released the "Commercial Health Insurance Innovative Drug Catalog (2025)," presenting certificates to representatives of the first batch of enterprises with negotiated agreements for commercial insurance innovative drugs. Representatives from relevant pharmaceutical companies, medical institutions, and the investment community shared their views and suggestions on promoting innovative drug development. The successful convening of this conference fully demonstrates the country's firm determination and clear stance in supporting innovative drug development and sends a strong signal of continuously strengthening the strategic layout for pharmaceutical innovation.

Province and City Strengthen Layout for the Biomedical Industry
Guangdong Province continues to exert efforts across the entire chain of innovative drug development. The Provincial Medical Insurance Administration, in collaboration with the Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology and the Health Commission, is striving to explore a high-quality development path oriented by clinical value and guided by medical insurance policies, connecting the entire chain of R&D, application, and payment. This aims to benefit the public with new and effective drugs and inject strong momentum into the pharmaceutical industry. The province is streamlining the clinical application pathway for innovative drugs, opening fast-track channels for eligible innovative drugs for network listing (挂网), achieving "review upon submission," and completing listing reviews within 15 working days. For clinically urgently needed innovative drugs introduced through the "Hong Kong and Macao Drug and Device Access" policy, green channels for code assignment and procurement are established. The efficacy of basic medical insurance coverage is being enhanced by promptly including nationally negotiated innovative drugs within the scope of medical insurance payment, implementing a separate payment policy for innovative drugs under medical insurance, and establishing a special case negotiation mechanism for innovative drugs. This provides an inclusive and prudent payment environment for innovative drug application while safeguarding the needs of critically ill patients. A multi-level security framework for innovative drugs is being constructed by actively promoting critical illness supplementary medical insurance and achieving "full coverage" of city-customized commercial health insurance. In 2024, a total of 17.91 million people in the province were insured, with claim payments reaching 976 million yuan, significantly reducing patients' medication burden.

Guangzhou resolutely implements the arrangements and deployments of the central government and the province, incorporating the biomedicine and health industry into the strategic industrial clusters prioritized for development within Guangzhou's "12218" modern industrial system. Following the work path of "selecting sectors, building industrial parks, increasing projects, and allocating resources," the city is systematically planning and coordinating efforts to accelerate the formation of a full-chain support system for the biomedicine industry. It is optimizing and improving the policy support system by issuing the "Several Policy Measures of Guangzhou to Promote High-Quality Development of the Biomedicine Industry" and a series of supporting policies, creating a "1+N" policy system for the biomedicine industry. This attracts numerous outstanding domestic and international enterprises and talents to develop in Guangzhou, providing strong guarantees for the R&D and promotion of innovative drugs. A welcoming industrial ecosystem is being fostered by hosting brand对接 (docking) events like "Industry-Finance Chain Linkage, Drugs Gather in Yangcheng" to facilitate connections between quality capital and quality enterprises and projects. Research is being conducted to promote the establishment of a biomedicine industry fund-of-funds to address financing difficulties for enterprises. A regular service mechanism has been established with the Greater Bay Area Branch Center of the National Medical Products Administration, and the province's first service station has been jointly built with the Guangdong Provincial Medical Products Administration to accelerate the approval and market launch of Guangzhou's pharmaceutical products. Pioneering and piloting innovative measures are being introduced by selecting innovative drug and medical device products, and with greater effort and more comprehensive dimensions, breaking through the "last mile" in the application of innovative drugs and devices. Medical insurance payment is being innovated by applying mechanisms such as special case negotiation for innovative drugs and point加成 (bonus) to increase medical insurance fund payments for innovative drugs and devices. The "Suixinbao" commercial insurance product has been launched, covering 120 types of off-catalog innovative drugs and devices, and pioneering the realization of one-stop simultaneous settlement for multiple commercial insurance products alongside basic medical insurance, enhancing the coverage for innovative drugs and devices. The city is deepening the pilot program for mutual recognition of medical ethics reviews, creating promotion and exhibition brands like the "Guangzhou Medical Expo," promoting the successful exploration and implementation of cell therapy technology clinical applications in Nansha, shaping new competitive advantages for the industry, and accelerating the leap towards becoming a strong city in the biomedicine industry.

All Parties Express Confidence in Innovative Drug Development
As a representative of designated medical institutions, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University shared its experiences and practices in innovative drug R&D and the introduction of nationally negotiated drugs into the hospital during the conference. The hospital stated it would actively implement the new version of the national basic medical insurance drug list, dovetail with the commercial health insurance innovative drug catalog, accelerate the introduction of nationally negotiated drugs into the hospital and their clinical application, ensure innovative drugs are "available for purchase, usable, and reimbursable," and enable the achievements of national negotiations to benefit patients more swiftly. As the main entities in innovative drug R&D and production, representatives from pharmaceutical companies highly affirmed China's full-chain support for innovative drug development. They believe the commercial health insurance innovative drug catalog is a key institutional innovation for improving the multi-level medical security system, allowing innovative achievements with breakthrough clinical value to benefit more patients in an affordable manner. Companies will leverage their comprehensive advantages in theoretical innovation, intelligent manufacturing, and the entire industry chain to produce more and better "safe drugs" and "effective drugs," and fully guarantee the smooth delivery of drugs to every patient in need. Representatives from the investment community expressed confidence in the development prospects of China's innovative drugs and stated they would continue to focus on investment opportunities in this area. The remarks from participants conveyed confidence and strength in the development of China's innovative drugs and fostered consensus on promoting their development. Guangzhou will take the opportunity of hosting the "2025 High-Quality Development Conference for Innovative Drugs" to continuously improve a comprehensive, full-chain, and whole-process policy support system for the biomedicine industry, strive to advance the biomedicine industry towards higher-end industrial chains and deeper innovation sources, build a world-class strategic industrial cluster in biomedicine, and jointly safeguard people's health.

Source: Guangzhou Medical Insurance