China’s strides in academic research seen to narrow US lead in medical science

Growing momentum in research sets China up as a formidable player in future of global healthcare, according to scientific publishers

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China’s overall research output is slowly overtaking the United States, especially in the field of medicine, according to academic publishers. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 6:00pm, 22 Sep 2024Updated: 4:14pm, 25 Sep 2024

China is rapidly narrowing the gap with the United States in medical research publications, a trend fuelled by both government policies and the development of artificial intelligence (AI), according to a top scientific publisher.

Marie Souliere, head of editorial ethics and quality assurance at Frontiers, one of the biggest academic publishers in the world, said she had seen China’s overall research output slowly overtake that of the US, and the lead was most striking in the field of medicine.

“China overtook the US in share of medicine-related articles in 2019, with 22 per cent of our published content in those fields, versus 19 per cent for the US. Since then, the China share has grown, and maintains around 40 per cent,” Souliere said in an interview with the Post this month.

“At Frontiers alone, 15,158 medicine articles by Chinese researchers were published in 2023, almost eight times more than … in 2019.”

“China’s rise in cancer research, particularly in oncology and immunology, gained momentum around 2010, fuelled by significant policy changes and investments in innovation,” Souliere said.

Marie Souliere, senior publishing manager at Frontiers. Photo: Frontier

“Before 2010, China’s focus in drug development was largely on generic medications. However, by 2016, regulatory reforms like faster clinical trial reviews and partnerships with global companies began driving rapid advances in cancer research, especially in immuno-oncology and cell therapy,” she added.