A Study of the Strategies and Pathways for Advancing High-Quality Growth in the Bio-Pharmaceutical Industry: From the Perspective of New Structural Economics

Abstract

Abstract: The bio-pharmaceutical industry is a critical component in expanding, optimizing, and strengthening the bio-economy and cultivating the new quality productive capacity. The bio-pharmaceutical industry can be segmented into generic drugs and innovative drugs, with significant structural differences across the bio-pharmaceutical industries of different entities. This paper conducts a case study by comparing the vertical and horizontal development of the bio-pharmaceutical industries in China, India, and Japan within the framework of New Structural Economics. The findings reveal that, vertically, with the transformation of the development stages and factor endowment structures, the bio-pharmaceutical industries in China, India, and Japan have undergone a structural shift from generic drugs to innovative drugs. The industrial policies have undergone a series of dynamic adjustments, from protecting the local market to opening up to the outside world, from technology introduction to independent innovation, and from basic medical security to comprehensive coverage. Horizontally, India, in the middle and low-income stage, relies on its factor cost advantage to concentrate on developing generic drugs, while China, in the middle and high-income stage, gradually transitions from generic drugs to innovative drugs. Japan, in the high-income stage, focuses on the development of innovative drugs. In summary, development stages and factor endowments have a significant impact on the structural evolution of the bio-pharmaceutical sector in a country, and the industrial structure can further decide the optimum government development strategies and industrial policies. Therefore, in promoting the high-quality development of the bio-pharmaceutical industry, China should not only consider its current status as an upper-middle-income country and balance the development of generic and innovative drugs, but also increase the proportion of government health expenditure and improve the medical insurance and social welfare systems.

Key words: new structural economics, bio-pharmaceutical industry, development stage, endowment structure, industrial policy

CLC Number:

F110

Lin Yi-fu, Wang Yong, Zhu Lan. A Study of the Strategies and Pathways for Advancing High-Quality Growth in the Bio-Pharmaceutical Industry: From the Perspective of New Structural Economics[J]. Contemporary Finance & Economics, 2025, 0(1): 3-16.

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