With over 20 years of R&D, why is Jiudian going to such great lengths to develop innovative drugs?

Recently, the official website of the National Medical Products Administration quietly updated a batch approval notice—Jiudian's innovative Chinese medicine Class 1.1 drug, Jiaoqi Pain Relief Gel Patch, has been officially approved for market launch. For most pharmaceutical companies, the approval of a new drug is a moment worth celebrating, but for Jiudian, the weight of this approval goes far beyond that.

The cumulative development period of this drug exceeds 20 years, undergoing three applications and two withdrawals, during which time it was even completely restarted with a new round of Phase III clinical trials conducted. Why did a topical patch require such immense effort from a listed company?

China's First Class 1.1 Topical Chinese Medicine Patch

Let's first talk about the drug itself.

Jiaoqi Pain Relief Gel Patch (formerly known as Jiaoqi Musk Gel Patch and Jiaoqi Musk Babu Patch) is a compound topical preparation of traditional Chinese medicine. It has the effects of warming meridians, dispelling cold, promoting blood circulation, and relieving pain. It is mainly used to treat knee osteoarthritis characterized by cold coagulation and blood stasis. In simple terms, it targets symptoms such as joint pain, aversion to cold, and limited mobility caused by the invasion of cold and dampness.

The special feature of this drug lies in its registration classification. In 2020, the National Medical Products Administration made major reforms to the registration classification of Chinese medicines. Original innovative compound preparations of Chinese medicine were classified as Class 1.1, emphasizing that "clinical value must be demonstrated with evidence-based medical data."

Jiaoqi Pain Relief Gel Patch is indeed the first orthopedic gel patch innovation drug approved in China under this new standard. In other words, it is not just a new product; it has also set a precedent under the new Chinese medicine review system.

From the perspective of dosage form, it integrates traditional Chinese medicine theory with modern transdermal drug delivery technology: unlike traditional Chinese medicine plasters, it is not merely "applying herbs to the skin," but achieves precise release of active ingredients through transdermal delivery technology.

Why Spend 20 Years on This?

To understand why Jiudian was willing to spend twenty years on a Chinese medicine patch, we must first look at the company's current situation.

In 2025, Jiudian's annual revenue reached 3.111 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.15%, marking its first entry into the top 100 Chinese pharmaceutical manufacturers. However, behind the revenue growth, its net profit declined by 7.72%; more critically, in the first quarter of 2026, revenue dropped by 14.48% year-on-year, and net profit attributable to shareholders plummeted by 54.89%.

One of the triggers for the plunge was centralized procurement. Jiudian's flagship product, Loxoprofen Sodium Gel Patch, saw a price reduction of up to 74.25% in the 11th national centralized procurement. In the first half of 2025, this single product contributed 735 million yuan in revenue, accounting for 48.63% of Jiudian's total revenue for the same period. With one product carrying nearly half of the burden, a single cut from centralized procurement was equivalent to striking directly at Jiudian's lifeline.

As industry analysts pointed out, when the exclusive blockbuster product no longer enjoys monopoly dividends, the logic of "trading volume for price" no longer works. Jiudian urgently needs to find a new growth engine and can no longer bet everything on one or two generic drugs.

At the same time, the topical patch market itself is undergoing profound changes. According to reports from Moshang Pharmaceutical, the sales scale of the topical patch market in 2025 was approximately 28.1 billion yuan, with Chinese patent medicine patches accounting for 63.5% and chemical medicine patches accounting for 36.5%. Although Chinese medicine patches still dominate, the compound annual growth rate of chemical medicine patches from 2023 to 2025 reached 17.08%, far exceeding the overall market growth rate of 10.27%. The traditional stronghold of Chinese medicine patches is being encroached upon by chemical ones, yet the chemical patch track is already crowded with generic competitors, while the field of Chinese medicine patches lacks true evidence-based medical benchmark products. If Jiudian does not develop its own innovative Chinese medicine, it is essentially handing over its territory to others.

On a deeper level, this concerns the strategic transformation of an enterprise. In its 2025 annual report, Jiudian explicitly stated that the company is comprehensively advancing its strategic transformation towards innovative drugs, adopting a strategy of "multiple R&D centers + multiple drug forms + multiple cooperation models" for rapid layout. Starting from generics and now fully shifting to innovative drugs, this is not an easy path, but it is almost a necessary journey for all leading pharmaceutical companies in China.

Twenty Years to Grind One Patch

Although the strategic direction is clear, execution is far from simple.

The R&D history of Jiaoqi Pain Relief Gel Patch can be described as "full of twists and turns": it dates back to April 2006, when the drug was first approved for clinical trials; Phase II clinical trials were completed in August 2008, and the summary report for Phase III clinical trials was obtained in May 2010. If everything had gone smoothly, it should have been approved upon its initial application for market launch in April 2013 under the name "Jiaoqi Musk Babu Patch."

However, in February 2015, the National Medical Products Administration issued the "Announcement on Carrying Out Self-Inspection and Verification of Drug Clinical Trial Data," commonly known in the industry as the "722" self-inspection. After completing the data self-inspection for this drug, Jiudian communicated with the Center for Drug Evaluation based on current technical guidance principles and ultimately chose to withdraw the marketing application and restart Phase III clinical trials. This meant that years of accumulated clinical data had to be discarded and redone.

This wait lasted seven years. It wasn't until November 2023 that Jiudian obtained the summary report for the second Phase III clinical trial; in December 2023, it submitted the second marketing authorization application and received acceptance, only to withdraw again in August 2024, this time citing the reason as "need to improve data."

Two withdrawals: one was a proactive choice amidst a policy storm, and the other was a pursuit of perfection in data improvement. Each withdrawal meant that tens of millions of yuan in R&D investment poured down the drain, and years of hard work by the R&D team went to waste.

But Jiudian did not give up. It was only upon the third application, which was the only one granted the opportunity to supplement materials, that they finally obtained the approval document.

Twenty years, three applications, two withdrawals, and one round of clinical redo. In any other company, this project would have been cancelled long ago. But Jiudian persevered. Some might say this is entrepreneurial sentiment: twenty years of persistence is indeed admirable. But the business world never runs solely on sentiment. There is another more realistic consideration behind Jiudian's stubbornness on this drug: the synergistic effect of the product matrix.

Just the day after the approval of Jiaoqi Pain Relief Gel Patch, another product of Jiudian—Loxoprofen Sodium Patch—was also approved for market launch, securing the first generic status alongside Guangdong Renxiang Pharmaceutical on the same day. Previously, the domestic market for Loxoprofen Sodium Patch was dominated solely by the original research brand LEAD. By 2025, the total terminal hospital market size had exceeded 800 million yuan.

The approval of these two products within two days is no coincidence. Jiudian has cultivated the transdermal drug delivery field for many years and already possesses multiple topical varieties such as Loxoprofen Sodium Gel Patch, Ketoprofen Gel Patch, and Flurbiprofen Gel Patch. The addition of Jiaoqi Pain Relief Gel Patch completes the puzzle piece of innovative Chinese medicine patches.

Its strategy is very clear: chemical patches focus on a cooling sensation and rapid analgesia, suitable for sports injuries and daily strain; Chinese medicine patches focus on a warming sensation, suitable for scenarios like aversion to cold, physical weakness, and bi-syndrome caused by cold-dampness. The two types of products are not substitutes for each other but offer complementary advantages, covering different consumer preferences and applicable diseases. This is precisely the strategy of "synergistic development of chemical and Chinese medicine patches" repeatedly emphasized by Jiudian in its research.

Looking ahead, Jiudian is playing a big game. In 2025, its R&D investment reached 237 million yuan, accounting for 7.63% of revenue. Jiudian has laid out innovative drugs in three core therapeutic pipelines: analgesia, chronic diseases, and tumors. The approval of Jiaoqi Pain Relief Gel Patch is not only a milestone of twenty years but also a 标志性 node in Jiudian's transition from imitation to comprehensive innovation.

From starting with generics to being driven by innovative drugs, Jiudian's transformation story is a microcosm of the industrial upgrading of China's pharmaceutical sector. The twenty years of Jiaoqi Pain Relief Gel Patch perfectly reflect Jiudian's entire journey from imitation to innovation.

Twenty years to grind one patch. What Jiudian is grinding is not just a patch, but its determination and patience to move from "imitation and following" to "innovation and leadership."

Source: Medical Research Society