Companies from China single-handedly sponsored a total of eight Phase III clinical studies that included US sites in 2023 compared to six in 2022 - but the figure was still below the record of 11 in 2021.

The National Health Service in England says it will be the first health system in the world to roll out a subcutaneously administered formulation of Tecentriq, after the UK MHRA became the first drug regulator to approve the product.

China's conditional approval system, which is an accelerated pathway, is being increasingly used by pharma firms, but some thorny issues remain such as the impact on full approvals, the scheme’s relation to priority reviews and currently available therapies and deadlines for confirmatory studies. Staff from the country's Center for Drug Evaluation discussed various topics around the system in a recent article.

During Q4, biopharmas brought in an aggregate $17.5bn in financing and device company fundraising totaled $1.9bn; while in vitro diagnostic firms and research tools players raised $848m.