Chinese biopharma innovators are making real progress toward global expansion. However, as Vera Zhang of Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Investment Co., Ltd. writes in DIA’s Global Forum magazine, moving beyond exporting products to building real global brands means investing in strategic international talent acquisition and well-defined roles, all underpinned by a scalable organisational structure. A new “Blue Book” based on interviews and surveys of executives from over 20 companies and released at the DIA China 2025 Talent Forum offers a framework of challenges and best-practice strategies to boost their overseas growth potential.

 

Chinese innovative biopharma companies are making remarkable strides in global expansion; to evolve from product globalization to true global competitiveness and brand recognition, these companies must prioritize strategic global talent acquisition and precise role placement. This will necessitate the progressive building of an international organizational framework with sustainable operational capacity, ensuring long-term success in the global biopharma arena. However, they face critical challenges in international talent management that pose risks to their overseas growth.

To help address these challenges, the Blue Book Opportunities and Challenges for International Talent in China’s Innovative Pharma Companies’ Global Expansion (Chinese only) was officially released at the Talent Forum at the DIA China Annual Meeting in Shanghai in 2025.

Based on extensive research by DIA’s Talent Development and Global Exchange Committee—including surveys and in-depth interviews with executives from more than 20 pharmaceutical companies—to gather industry insights, the Blue Book consolidates key challenges, shared experiences, and strategic recommendations, to provide a framework to explore best practices in international talent development and core competency enhancement.

Surveys and interviews reveal that Chinese innovative biopharma companies currently expanding overseas tend to maintain lean international team structures, reflecting the early-stage nature of their global strategic experimentation.

Most companies operate with overseas teams of fewer than 100 employees, with 20-50 employees being the most common range—representing roughly 40% of survey responses.According to survey results on the functions covered by overseas employers, approximately 80% of interviewees indicated involvement in “research and development” (R&D) and 73% in “clinical,” but only 40% in “sales” (half the proportion seen in R&D and clinical functions). In contrast to R&D, commercial capabilities remain underdeveloped, with most companies yet to establish fully localized, end-to-end commercial operations.

 

Read the full article on the DIA Global Forum website here