China’s healthcare sector’s robust growth to continue: analyst

BEIJING - China’s health care sector is expected to continue its robust growth as the industry benefits from supportive policies and investors are drawn to surging biotech stocks listed in Hong Kong, said an analyst at ICBC International has told Caixin.

Chinese pharmaceutical companies would get a boost from the government regulator’s faster approvals of new drugs and medical devices, said Zhang Jialin, a senior health-care analyst with ICBC International Research Ltd. in Hong Kong.

Last October, China’s State Council announced proposals to expedite approvals for new drugs and, for the first time, permit the use of data from overseas clinical trials.

Meanwhile, a wave of consolidation in China’s fragmented pharmaceutical industry would help those industry leaders to gain market shares, said Zhang. www.webershandwick,cn (ATI).