In the city with the largest economy, another trillion-yuan industry is emerging.

At a recent press briefing, the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission revealed that the scale of Shanghai's biomedical industry has been growing steadily, increasing from 761.714 billion yuan in 2021 to 984.702 billion yuan in 2024, with an average annual compound growth rate of 8.94%. In the first half of 2025, it reached 500.566 billion yuan, and it is expected to exceed 1 trillion yuan this year.

Data also shows that the output value of Shanghai's biomedical manufacturing industry increased from 171.2 billion yuan in 2021 to 201.167 billion yuan in 2024, with an average annual compound growth of 6.9%. By the end of 2024, there were 2,183 above - scale biomedical enterprises in Shanghai, covering multiple industries such as manufacturing, services, and wholesale. Among the top 20 pharmaceutical companies and the top 20 medical device companies in the international rankings, 19 of each have established their headquarters, production centers, or R & D centers in Shanghai.

As the "economic capital" of China, Shanghai has built four trillion - level industrial clusters in electronic information, automobiles, high - end equipment, and software and information services. The biomedical industry reaching the trillion - yuan mark means that Shanghai will have another trillion - level industry.

As one of the first cities in China to layout the biomedical industry, as early as 1993, Shanghai listed modern biology and medicine as a high - tech industry for key development. In 2020, the suggestions for Shanghai's 14th Five - Year Plan clearly proposed to "double the scale of the three leading industries of integrated circuits, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence." In 2024, Shanghai launched the mother funds for the three leading industries, including the mother funds for integrated circuits, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence, as well as the future industry fund, with a total scale of 100 billion yuan.

According to the goals set in the "14th Five - Year Plan for the Development of Shanghai's Biomedical Industry", by 2025, Shanghai will initially build a core carrier for a world - class biomedical industrial cluster, including six 10 - billion - yuan - level industrial parks, with an industrial scale exceeding 1 trillion yuan.

With a series of policy support, Shanghai's biomedical industry has developed rapidly. Last year, the scale of Shanghai's three leading industries reached 1.8 trillion yuan, and the biomedical industry accounted for half of it.

Previously released data showed that Shanghai has formed a complete biomedical industrial chain and an "ecosystem", with more than 80,000 enterprises upstream and downstream of the industrial chain. More than 30 of these enterprises have been listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, ranking first in the country.

In 2024, 7 Class 1 innovative drugs and 15 Class III innovative medical devices in Shanghai were approved for marketing, accounting for 17.5% and 32.6% of the national total respectively. There were 15 projects with overseas licensing transaction amounts exceeding 500 million US dollars, with a transaction volume of 19.83 billion US dollars, a year - on - year increase of 30.5%, ranking first in the country.

Now, Shanghai is on the verge of crossing the trillion - yuan mark in the biomedical industry, and the global biomedical industry is also in a stage of in - depth adjustment. How can Shanghai take it to the next level?

According to the latest revelation from the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission, Shanghai will fully promote the acceleration of the entire chain from basic research, incubation and transformation, clinical trials, review and approval, production, to promotion and application, enhance the function of scientific and technological innovation as a source and the leading function of high - end industries, and accelerate the construction of a world - class biomedical innovation high - ground and industrial cluster.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Urban Evolution Theory", author: Liu Yanmei. It is published by 36Kr with permission.