As part of efforts to build a marine powerhouse and promote the marine economy, China has released its first national policy document for the development of the marine biomedical industry.

The document highlights four characteristics: integration, differentiation, innovation and precision. It aims to strengthen the whole-chain innovation system that links the industry's resource, technology, industrial and application chains, and foster deep integration between technological innovation and industrial innovation.

It also sets the target of launching multiple marine innovative drugs and achieving an industry value added of more than 130 billion RMB by 2030.

A series of measures have been outlined across five key areas: consolidating the foundation for resource supply, enhancing the supporting role of sci-tech innovation, optimizing the orientation of industrial development, accelerating the expansion of market applications, and strengthening policy support.

Key measures include conducting surveys of marine drug-source biological resources, improving marine drug-source preservation systems, building high-level innovation platforms, and accelerating breakthroughs in marine drugs and functional products. In addition, investment will be boosted, market services strengthened and international cooperation deepened.

The marine drug and functional product industry, also known as the marine biomedical industry or the marine drug and biological product industry, is a general term for activities that use marine organisms (including their metabolites), minerals and other substances as raw materials to produce drugs and functional products. Marine biomass accounts for 87 percent of Earth's total biomass, and its species richness far exceeds that of the land, making it a vast treasure trove of medicinal resources.

In 2025, the industrial added value of the sector in China reached 99.6 billion RMB, an increase of nearly 40 percent since the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025). The industrial chain spans innovative marine drugs, marine health foods, marine biomaterials, marine biological products and other fields, said Shen Jun, an official from the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR).

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) is incorporating marine drugs and functional products as key development areas in the pharmaceutical industry development plan for the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), according to Wang Xiaoyang, an official from the ministry.

The document was jointly issued by eight departments, including MNR, MIIT, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Science and Technology, National Health Commission, State Administration for Market Regulation, National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and National Medical Products Administration.