Flying on two wings: How Ypsomed built a dual-engine strategy to lead China's drug delivery market 

China's pharmaceutical market, the second largest in the world, is expected to see medicine spending exceed 190 billion USD by 2029.¹ But scale alone does not capture what is happening. Over the past decade, China's biopharma sector has undergone a structural shift, one that is redefining what the market demands and what it takes to compete within it.

The evidence is striking. In the first half of 2025, 46% of all new drug molecules entering human trials originated from Chinese biopharma companies.² Regulatory reforms from the National Medical Products Administration and growing alignment with ICH standards, which China joined in 2017, have accelerated that trajectory, creating a more sophisticated and internationally connected development environment. IQVIA noted in its 2025 report that a growing number of original branded medicines are being introduced by domestic companies rather than multinational firms, a shift that is changing China’s pharmaceutical sector, influencing markets across the region and globally.³

Nowhere is this more visible than in injectable drug delivery. China has rapidly expanded its pipeline of subcutaneous therapies across oncology, autoimmune disease, metabolic disorders, and diabetes, with demand for self-injection devices growing alongside it. Chinese pharmaceutical companies are no longer developing therapies for domestic consumption alone. They are building globally competitive biologics and injectable programs with serious international licensing and commercialization ambitions. At the same time, multinational pharmaceutical companies are seeking to enter or deepen their presence in the Chinese market.

Both groups face the same underlying challenge. They need a device partner capable of delivering local manufacturing, local expertise, and globally recognized standards from inside China itself. That combination, two capabilities working in concert, is what the next chapter of China's pharmaceutical growth will demand.

Good chemistry: The new formula needed for partnership

Growth in pipeline complexity and international ambition changes what pharmaceutical companies need from a device partner. Simply selecting a device platform is no longer the starting point it once was. The demands are broader and more integrated: speed of development, supply continuity, regulatory fluency across multiple markets, and the ability to support programs from early device selection through to commercial scale.

For Chinese pharmaceutical companies, those demands are particularly acute. Programs are moving faster, pipelines are more sophisticated, and the expectations placed on device partners have never been higher. For multinational companies entering China, the challenge is different but related: how does a global organization maintain seamless alignment with its worldwide development programs while operating at the pace the Chinese market demands?

The answer to both questions points in the same direction. What the market now requires is a device partner genuinely embedded in China, one with the global quality standards and regulatory experience to support programs wherever they are ultimately headed, built on two foundations: manufacturing inside the country, and cross-functional expertise on the ground. Neither is sufficient alone.

Familiar territory: A long time local

Ypsomed's presence in China did not begin with the opening of its Changzhou manufacturing facility. It began more than 20 years ago, when the company established its first commercial presence in the Chinese market, at a time when the country's pharmaceutical industry looked very different from what it is today.

The entry point was diabetes care, a deliberate choice given both the scale of unmet need in China and the growing demand for reliable, high-quality injection devices to support long-term therapy adherence. From that foundation, Ypsomed progressively expanded its local presence, moving from an initial commercial footprint to a dedicated office in 2014, and steadily building out teams across commercial, technical, regulatory, and project management functions.

As the Chinese pharmaceutical market evolved, so did Ypsomed's scope within it. The company expanded beyond diabetes into peptide therapies delivered through pen injectors and autoimmune disease programs supported by autoinjector platforms, tracking the broader diversification of China's injectable therapy pipeline.

The results of that sustained investment are visible in Ypsomed's track record. More than 25 product launches realized in collaboration with Chinese pharmaceutical customers, across more than 20 years of partnership. Two in three of Ypsomed's Chinese customers have partnered with the company on more than one program. That pattern of long-term, multi-program partnership reflects both the confidence customers place in a partner that has consistently delivered, and the operational credibility that only comes from sustained presence in a market over time.

Factory settings: A concrete commitment in Changzhou

In April 2023, Ypsomed broke ground on a new production facility in Changzhou's National Hi-tech District, a high-tech industrial park near Shanghai home to more than 10,000 companies. The facility opened in June 2025, representing an investment of over CHF 100 million and a manufacturing footprint of more than 15,000m², with an additional 30,000m² secured for future expansion.

The decision to build in China rather than expand exports from Europe was deliberate. Ypsomed was not relocating capacity from its European facilities but adding new capacity, designed from the outset to serve the Chinese market directly. For pharmaceutical companies managing complex development and commercialization timelines, a locally manufactured supply removes a layer of operational risk that cross-border models cannot fully eliminate: customs procedures, import documentation, transportation lead times, and exposure to broader supply chain disruption. Bringing manufacturing inside China simplifies that picture considerably, and secures access to therapies where continuity of treatment is critical, especially for chronic patients.

At the same time, local manufacturing supports greater production flexibility. Compared with globally centralized supply models, a manufacturing presence within China allows for closer alignment with local customer needs and faster adaptation to changes in order volumes, accelerated timelines, and more efficient logistics. That responsiveness is particularly valuable in a pharmaceutical market that continues to evolve at exceptional speed.

The facility has been built to Ypsomed's global standards throughout. ISO 13485 certification for medical devices has been completed by TÜV Süd, and the site has achieved LEED Platinum certification, making it one of the most sustainable industrial buildings in the world. All staff are trained and qualified in line with Ypsomed's global quality framework. The industrialization of drug-device programs within China, taking a product from development through to reliable commercial scale, can now be managed locally, without compromise on the standards set by Ypsomed and that global programs demand.

Flying on two wings: Spanning production and people

Local manufacturing and local expertise are each valuable in their own right. But it is their combination that defines Ypsomed's operating model in China, and that combination is deliberate. This is Ypsomed's "two wings" framework.

Ypsomed's Changzhou facility does not operate in isolation. It is supported by a multi-functional team based in China, spanning commercial, technical, regulatory, and project management functions. Together, those two capabilities, manufacturing presence and cross-functional expertise, allow Ypsomed to support Chinese pharmaceutical customers across the full arc of a program: from initial device selection and technical compatibility discussions, through regulatory coordination and project management, to commercial launch and supply.

For Chinese pharmaceutical companies developing their first autoinjector or pen injector program, that integrated model removes a layer of complexity that would otherwise require managing multiple partners across different geographies. Local language, local time zone, and local currency, combined with reduced complexity around cross-border supply and import processes, mean that day-to-day collaboration is simpler and faster. One partner, operating locally, capable of supporting the entire journey.

For multinational pharmaceutical companies seeking to enter or expand within China, Ypsomed's model serves a different but equally important function. It acts as a bridge between a customer's global development programs and the specific regulatory, operational, and supply requirements of the Chinese market, providing local regulatory fluency, local supply capability, and local project coordination.

For Chinese pharmaceutical companies with international ambitions, the model also addresses a less obvious but increasingly important consideration. As more Chinese companies pursue global licensing and commercialization strategies, partner credibility on intellectual property protection becomes a genuine concern. With more than 240 patent families, Ypsomed brings the kind of established IP framework that helps customers prepare products for international markets with confidence.

Underpinning all of this is a broader ecosystem approach. Collaborations with partners across primary packaging, final assembly, and automation, combined with ready-to-use final assembly capabilities, allow Ypsomed to coordinate across multiple parts of the drug-device value chain, reducing complexity for customers managing increasingly demanding development programs.