Amid an outpouring of pharma investment dollars into China, Novartis is the latest multinational drugmaker lining up to bolster its research and production operations in the country.
The Swiss pharma will collectively invest more than 3.3 billion Chinese yuan (roughly $480 million) to soup up its manufacturing facility in Beijing and strengthen its R&D campus in Shanghai, where the company’s Chinese headquarters are also located, according to a March 22 post (Chinese) on the company’s official WeChat account.
Some 1.5 billion yuan will be channeled toward the plant upgrade, with Novartis telegraphing plans to build new “factory buildings and supporting facilities.” The company also plans to introduce new production technology and equipment to the Beijing facility, including for aseptic preparation, liquid filling and packaging.
Novartis established its Beijing plant back in 1987 and notes that the facility can currently produce up to 3 billion tablets or capsules and 550 million boxes of packaging per year, making it a key manufacturing node in the company’s global network.
The remaining roughly 1.8 billion yuan will help Novartis initiate a “second phase” of work at its Shanghai campus. The company explained that it plans to continue pumping cash into its own China R&D efforts while also “actively exploring potential external collaboration opportunities with China’s biopharmaceutical industry.”
In particular, Novartis said it’s interested in supporting phase 1 and 2 clinical trials in China with an eye toward bolstering its pipeline—although it stressed that it’s not opposed to potential opportunities to work with local partners “earlier and more deeply,” too.
“China is crucial to Novartis' long-term development and innovation,” CEO Vas Narasimhan said at the 2026 annual meeting of the China Development Forum, around which Novartis timed its investment announcement. “We will continue to introduce innovative medicines to Chinese patients and are committed to becoming China's most valuable and trusted healthcare partner.”
Novartis has boasted operations in China for some 140 years and asserts it is now serving more than 80 million patients in the country.
The Beijing facility marks Novartis’ biggest branded drug plant in China, while the Shanghai campus represents its third-largest R&D center globally and the nerve center of its Asia-Pacific operations, according to Yicai Global. Aside from those sites, Novartis also operates a generic drug production facility in Guangdong province and is building a plant for radiopharmaceutical drugs in Zhejiang province, the news service pointed out.
At the Development Forum conference, Novartis homed in on the potential that its radiopharmaceuticals could bring to cancer treatment in the nation. Novartis has two approved radioligand therapies (RLTs) in the country—Lutathera and Pluvicto—with the latter approved in two indications by China’s drug regulator in November.
The company is calling for improvements to the regulatory landscape for nuclear medicines in China, including better frameworks for local production, and recommended improving hospital access and clinical application mechanisms in a bid to help RLTs reach more cancer patients.
The company noted that it has wrapped up construction on its first Chinese radioligand drug manufacturing site in Haiyan in Zhejiang province and that the facility—which is ramping up “according to plan”—will eventually be able to provide a “stable supply” of RLTs to treat multiple oncology indications in China.
Novartis’ renewed commitment in the country follows several similar investments from its Big Pharma peers.
Just last week, AstraZeneca unveiled plans for a commercial cell therapy manufacturing base and related innovation center in Shanghai, part of a broader $15 billion China investment pledge it outlined at the start of 2026. While that outlay is broadly focused on cell therapies and radioconjugates, AZ also plugged $136 million more into an ongoing expansion of its inhalants production hub in Qingdao, China, in November.
Separately, Eli Lilly in early March sketched out designs on a $3 billion upgrade to its manufacturing operations in China, specifically pledging to establish local production and supply for oral solid drugs as it beefs up capacity for its next-generation GLP-1 pill orforglipron.
That project is scheduled to play out over the next 10 years and will also include tie-ups with local manufacturing partners, including—so far—Beijing-based CDMO Pharmaron.