Once the world's factory, China has seen costs inch up while drug prices are being cut deeply by centralized procurement schemes. As uncertainties mount, companies need to focus on improving process and scale-up technology, suggested industry observers at a JPM panel discussion on innovation and market access challenges.

2019 was the year that China approved the first new drug for Alzheimer's in nearly two decades and for the first US approval of an original cancer drug from China. While the simmering US trade war has been addressed by a phase one agreement to be signed, other uncertainties marked a year dominated by a large vaccine scandal and resulting bankruptcy, and increasing calls to include China in global clinical development plans.

A regulatory framework that encourages physicians to conduct experimental cell and gene therapies have propelled China to become a major developer of such promising cancer-treating tools, but insiders say three are a plethora issues at stake.