Will the next blockbuster drug come from China?

China's biotech sector is experiencing the same evolution seen in other sectors: from a low-cost outsourcing hub to a source of its own intellectual property. Photo by NOEL CELIS/AFP via Getty Images/Postmedia files

In an industrial suburb of Shanghai, a changing of the guard in drugmaking is unfolding.

Engineers inspect a line of enormous stainless-steel vats where a biologic drug will soon begin production, derived from cells originating in hamster ovaries. With each vat big enough to make 50,000 litres of the medicine, the facility is just one piece of evidence of a biopharma industry boom under way across China .

The plant belongs to BiBo Pharma, which began construction in February and is already a month ahead of schedule, propelled by rapid-fire approvals and hands-on supp