Evolution of international collaboration in China’s biomedical technology and policy implications

In light of the rapid advancement of biomedical technologies and intensifying geopolitical competition over technological dominance, international cooperation in this field has garnered significant attention among scholars, policymakers, and industry leaders. This study employs comprehensive patent data spanning from 2002 to 2023 across the global biomedical landscape to systematically investigate the characteristics and evolution patterns of both global and Chinese biomedical inventions. Employing econometric analysis of patents and social network analysis, the research examines three key dimensions: patent output, technological pathways, and collaboration networks. Three research findings are derived. Firstly, China has transitioned from a “catch-up collaborator” to a critical hub facilitating cross-national and cross-disciplinary knowledge flows. Despite challenges posed by U.S. technological decoupling policies, China remains deeply embedded in the global technology system. Amid escalating geopolitical tensions, China-Western cooperation is undergoing strategic rebalancing, as China expands its collaboration with emerging economies and Belt and Road countries to build a more diverse, resilient, and adaptive global biomedical cooperation network. Secondly, China is progressively strengthening its technological leadership within international collaborations. Antibody-based technologies have emerged as a central area of cooperation, reflecting a shift from traditional broad-spectrum formulations to precision-targeted therapies and high-complexity drug delivery systems. This transformation underscores China’s evolving role-from a recipient of general-purpose technologies to a co-creator of frontier innovations-increasingly integrated into the global high-end biomedical innovation ecosystem. However, significant gaps persist compared to developed economies, particularly in upstream capabilities such as platform technologies, fundamental pharmaceutical chemistry, and gene editing. Thirdly, while the U.S. and European countries continue to lead global technological paradigms in foundational and platform technologies-shaping a pattern of strategic complementarity-China-U.S. cooperation remains concentrated in midstream R&D activities within the industrial chain. This collaboration is characterized by a consensus-driven, market-oriented approach, focusing on functional modifications and applied innovations based on existing targets rather than constructing differentiated knowledge assets from the ground up. Consequently, a stable framework for long-term complementarity and platform-level coordination has yet to be established. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the evolutionary mechanisms underlying China’s transformation from a “technology taker” to a “network orchestrator” within the global biomedical collaboration landscape. From a policy perspective, it offers valuable insights for advancing China's strategy of high-level scientific and technological openness and building a strategically influential and internationally embedded innovation system. Specifically, the study proposes five policy implications for China. (1) Establish strategic international joint R&D platforms to enhance China’s embeddedness in critical innovation nodes. (2) Guide resource allocation toward high-barrier, highly original technological domains to strengthen China’s control within the global value chain. (3) Optimize incentive mechanisms for cross-border collaboration to attract high-quality international cooperation resources to China. (4) Fortify the national bio-data defense system and develop an autonomous and controllable biomedical data ecosystem. (5) Encourage the participation of diverse actors in international collaboration networks to enhance China’s influence in high-quality collaborative patents.