Pilot project allows foreign-invested businesses to boost CGT development

In a significant move toward liberalization in the healthcare sector, Shanghai's Pudong New Area witnessed the first batch of six foreign-invested biotechnology companies, including Merck Testing and Frontera Therapeutics, complete changes in their business scopes to include cell and gene therapy last week.

The changes signified a milestone in a pilot project that allowed foreign-invested enterprises to engage in the development and application of human stem cells, gene diagnostics and therapeutic technologies in Pudong.

The move aligned with a notice issued in September jointly by the Ministry of Commerce, the National Health Commission and the National Medical Products Administration that permitted foreign-invested companies to engage in such technologies in eight cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, and in Hainan province.