Following in the steps of Merck & Co. and GSK, Pfizer is turning to a Chinese partner to more broadly market one of its top vaccines in the country - but the US firm is going one step further.

Since October, reported cases of infectious respiratory diseases have been rising in China, prompting an information request from the WHO. However, no new types of pathogen or unusual clinical symptoms have been detected so far.

Topics in this latest Chinese-language podcast include the US approval of Chinese innovative drugs including Junshi’s anti-PD-1 antibody toripalimab, Sanofi’s deal with BioMap for AI-powered drug discovery, Chinese companies' third-quarter results and the Biden-Xi summit on the sidelines of APEC and its implications for bilateral regulatory dialog.

Among multinationals, AstraZeneca has reported its commercial activities have been negatively impacted by China's broad anti-corruption campaign, while J&J has seen some affect from the country's volume-based procurement scheme. Roche, Lilly and Novartis have also reported some softness in the last quarter versus the previous three months.

Beijing’s application to join an international pharma inspections scheme offers a rare opportunity to revitalize a largely downsized US-China dialogue, but domestic pressure and public opinion may jeopardize the opportunity.

As artificial intelligence-aided drug discovery gains momentum, Sanofi appears keen to hop onboard via a recent tie-up with leading Chinese AI company BioMap. But data challenges, a hard-to-define value proposition, concerns over data security and looming regulations are making others hesitant.