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Leading Chinese pharmaceutical companies such as Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals and CanSino Biologics are finding it difficult to hire professionals experienced in overseas operations. According to IQVIA data, China-headquartered sponsors conducted 88 percent of their trials exclusively domestically in 2025 while accounting for only 5 percent of those run in the United States. The same figures show Chinese entities now represent 32 percent of all global clinical trials, a sharp rise from 2 percent in 2009 that has intensified competition for specialized talent. A KPMG assessment of the 2026 China life sciences sector placed domestic biotechs at nearly 30 percent of global drug development pipelines with more than 1,200 novel candidates under study.
Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals chairman Sun Piaoyang said global multi-center clinical trials, overseas registration and commercialisation efforts require more highly qualified professionals. He noted the acute shortage of people with expertise in global development, international regulatory affairs and cross-cultural management. CanSino Biologics CEO Yu Xuefeng highlighted similar gaps, pointing to the scarcity of qualified specialists in overseas clinical trials, regulatory submissions across multiple jurisdictions and international marketing.
An ICON survey indicated Asia-Pacific biotech professionals are nearly three times more likely than global peers to report talent shortages. Catherine Gregor, chief clinical trial officer at Florence Healthcare, said access to more internationally trained senior talent is essential to avoid bottlenecks in global commercialization. The pressures have driven compensation costs higher for candidates possessing the required international perspectives, according to executives quoted in the report.
Hengrui has moved to address the gap by stepping up internal training programs while continuing to recruit globally. CanSino developed its core regulatory affairs and clinical teams through lessons drawn from international advisers. Shanghai Henlius Biotech has gone further by establishing dedicated in-house clinical and regulatory affairs teams across the United States, Europe, Japan and Australia.
Former U.S. Food and Drug Administration official Richard Pazdur stressed that multi-regional trials allow comparison of results across different countries and populations. Japan’s Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency requires most new drugs to include clinical data from Japanese patients for approval. Recruiters told Reuters the talent constraints are more likely to introduce friction through greater reliance on overseas partners than to derail expansion plans outright.
The value of licensing deals with partners in the greater China region jumped to $138 billion in 2025 from $318 million in 2016, Pharmcube data shows. China’s National Medical Products Administration approved 76 innovative medicines during 2025, an increase from 48 the year before, according to government records. Nihar Parikh at Smith Hanley Associates cited candidate hesitation over the long-term durability of certain overseas strategies and noted that offered packages frequently trail those available in the United States and Europe.
