On November 14, Chongqing held a policy briefing for its "Comprehensive Measures to Support High-Quality Development of Innovative Drugs" (hereinafter referred to as "the Measures"). Luo Li, Deputy Director of the Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, announced that Chongqing will implement a full-chain funding strategy, offering a 10 million yuan reward for each innovative drug achieving commercialization. The city aims to have 10 innovative drugs by 2027.
Luo detailed the systematic funding plan under "the Measures" covering the entire R&D lifecycle of innovative drugs: - **R&D Phase**: For Category 1 innovative drugs, Category 2 improved new drugs, and biosimilars, projects will be approved at four stages—pre-clinical trials and Phase I, II, and III clinical trials—with cumulative funding up to 17 million yuan to ensure timely financial support at critical R&D milestones. - **Clinical Phase**: The policy focuses on enhancing core clinical research capabilities, attracting and nurturing leading principal investigators ("big PIs"), and rewarding medical institutions that complete new drug clinical trials to boost participation. - **Commercialization Phase**: Each approved innovative drug will receive 10 million yuan, improved new drugs and biosimilars 5 million yuan, and classical traditional Chinese medicine formulations 1 million yuan to accelerate commercialization. - **Market Expansion**: For overseas licensing deals of innovative drugs, rewards of up to 5 million yuan (3% of the upfront payment) will be granted to support global market entry.