Major international healthcare companies are deepening their presence in China, drawn by the country's advanced manufacturing capabilities and growing innovation ecosystem, according to senior executives at the third China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing.
Themed "Connecting the World for a Shared Future," the five-day expo concluded on Sunday after attracting 1,200 participating Chinese and foreign enterprises and institutions, with total attendance surpassing 210,000 online and offline visitors.
At the event, GE Healthcare China Vice President Chen Heqiang stressed China's supply chain reliability in an interview with the China Media Group (CMG).
"China's supply chain serves as a stabilizer for global medical equipment production. Whether in urgent order fulfillment, quality control, or delivery timelines, we lead the industry. 'Made in China' has become a widely recognized quality benchmark. Our Beijing facility is a 'lighthouse factory' operating at world-leading efficiency. Regarding urgent order fulfillment, other factories may require one to two weeks, while our Beijing facility can complete them in just three days, often with just 10 to 20 percent of the manpower required elsewhere," Chen said.
French biopharma company Sanofi's leadership highlighted China's integration in global research.
"China contributes to over 90 percent of Sanofi's global research and development projects. Our Shenzhen vaccine production base exemplifies end-to-end global connectivity, from strain selection in France to local bulk production, filling, packaging, and cold-chain distribution in China. This seamlessly integrates global innovation with local execution," said Zhu Hailuan, vice president of Sanofi Greater China.
Senior executives of world medical technology companies said they are planning to expand their presence in China. Medical technology firm Medtronic is developing a digital healthcare innovation center in China, scheduled to start operation later this year.
"We are working on an innovation center that will be in Yizhuang (in Beijing). We are going to open that at the end of this year. And there will be partnering with local Chinese AI companies. So the whole goal here is to provide, create efficiency propositions so that we can treat patients better," said Nina Goodheart, senior vice president of Medtronic.
"Over the next five years, GE Healthcare will invest 380 million yuan in our Shanghai 'Belt and Road Excellence Manufacturing Center' and establish a new research and development facility in Tianjin with an additional 500 million yuan investment," Chen said.
"Sanofi announced a one billion euro investment late last year to build an insulin active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) production base in China. Moving forward, we will further expand our innovation footprint in the Chinese market and deepen collaborations with domestic innovation partners," Zhu said.
These investments demonstrate international healthcare companies' growing confidence in China's dual role as both a manufacturing base and an innovation hub. The commitments follow China's demonstrated supply chain resilience during global challenges and its emerging strengths in digital health technologies.
Highlighting China's manufacturing, innovation strengths, global healthcare firms seek to expand footprint in Chinese market
