Ten ministries release 15th Five-Year Plan for the pharmaceutical industry; total out-licensing value of innovative drugs exceeds 120 billion US dollars

The National Medical Products Administration will advance the implementation of the pharmaceutical trial data protection system, establish market exclusivity periods for pediatric drugs and rare disease medications, and strengthen pre-guidance for innovative drugs with new targets and mechanisms. A responsible official from the NMPA stated that it will also expand the "Spring Rain Action" for transforming clinical innovations in medical devices, and formulate clinical trial and review guiding principles in frontier areas such as brain-computer interfaces. Zhongtai Securities noted that AI4S is expanding from single-point tool applications to coordinated development across data, models, wet-lab experiments, and R&D processes, and that life science upstream and CXO companies with high-quality data accumulation, automated experimental platforms, and industrial customer bases are expected to benefit continuously. As of 11:22 on September 21, 2026, the Penghua STAR Market Healthcare ETF rose 3.87%, with constituent stock HitGen up 14.54%, and Zelgen Biopharmaceuticals and Huiyu Pharmaceutical following the gains; the Penghua Hang Seng Biotech ETF rose 4.56%.

At a State Council Information Office press conference on the 15th Five-Year Plan, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said it will stay application-driven, deepen the implementation of AI plus manufacturing, support research and development of key technologies such as high-end training chips and multimodal algorithms, tackle frontier technologies including brain-inspired intelligence and world models, advance the iteration of intelligent terminals such as humanoid robots and brain-computer interfaces, and distill high-value scenarios by industry while rolling out a batch of lightweight, low-cost, easy-to-deploy industry solutions. Multiple products under China Southern Fund are positioned in the artificial intelligence industry, including China Southern Digital Economy Mixed Fund, China Southern Technology Pilot Mixed Fund, China Southern Yihe Flexible Allocation Mixed Fund, China Southern Emerging Leaders Flexible Allocation Mixed Fund, and China Southern China Dream Flexible Allocation Mixed Fund.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released on August 24 a draft for comments of the National Brain-Computer Interface Industry Standards System Construction Guidelines 2026 Edition, proposing to formulate or revise more than 40 standards in the brain-computer interface field by 2028 and to promote standards publicity and implementation among over 100 enterprises. In early trading today, consumer sector indices such as daily chemicals, tourism, and hotels and catering led gains, with the daily chemicals industry rising the most. Proya, Betaini, and SYoung Group all gained more than 5 percent, while Qingdao Kingking shot up and sealed the daily limit within two minutes, becoming the only limit-up stock in the daily chemicals sector. Brain-computer interface concept stocks have fallen an average of 15.74 percent this year, but since August the average daily turnover of 10 concept stocks has increased month on month. Beijing Beilu Pharmaceutical had an average daily turnover of 317 million yuan, up 71.83 percent month on month, ranking first. According to statistics from Securities Times Data Treasure, there are currently more than 30 A-share concept stocks involved in the brain-computer interface industry chain, with companies such as Medlander, Vishee, Meihao Medical, Apon Medical, and ZKTeco all having layouts.

Brain-computer interface technology is accelerating its move from the laboratory into clinical and consumer markets. The global market is expected to exceed 360 billion yuan by 2035, with China likely to account for more than 30 percent of that share. Neuralink has announced completion of the world's first brain-computer interface surgery implanted through the dura mater, while China's first subdural implantable brain-computer interface system has also begun national Class III medical device registration clinical trials. Companies listed in both A-share and Hong Kong markets, such as Wision Medical, Sanbo Brain Hospital, and MicroPort NeuroTech, have already achieved commercial revenue through non-invasive rehabilitation, clinical data assets, and implantable products. On the policy front, brain-computer interfaces have been included in the future industries section of the 15th Five-Year Plan. Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong have introduced targeted support policies, and an industry standardization technical committee has also been established. Institutions expect 2027 to become the first year of commercial explosion for brain-computer interfaces.

The medical device sector rebounded in afternoon trading, with Biolight hitting the 20% daily limit up. Earlier, Chaoyan Medical rose by the daily limit, Aohua Endoscopy gained over 10%, and Apon Medical, Rendu Biotechnology, Haitex, Nanwei Medical, and Lude Medical also followed the upward trend. The General Office of the Zhejiang Provincial People's Government issued several measures this morning to promote industry-academia-research collaboration in brain-computer interfaces, aiming for future industry revenue from brain-computer interfaces to exceed 5 billion yuan by 2027, and to establish a globally competitive hub for brain-computer interface technology and industry innovation by 2030.