Dialogue with Johnson Huang: In China's innovative drug market, the real difficulty is not innovation itself, but sticking to doing the right thing.

Why does AI and innovative drug implementation require multi-party collaboration to solve structural challenges?

By 2026, China’s innovative drug industry is at a critical turning point. The government work report lists biomedicine as an “emerging pillar industry,” and the “Healthy China 2030” strategy enters its final five-year phase, elevating the “last mile” issue of bringing innovative drugs into practice to the national policy agenda.

For multinational pharmaceutical companies, this means a more complex coexistence: policies encourage high-quality innovation, unmet patient needs are enormous, but the accessibility of innovation, the sustainability of payments, and the gap between drug approval and truly benefiting patients remain practical issues that require multi-party collaboration to resolve.

At this juncture, Xie Jingwei, Executive Editor of Fortune China New Media, and Cherry Huang, President of Johnson & Johnson Innovation - China, engaged in an in-depth dialogue. Huang has worked at Johnson & Johnson for over 25 years, holding management roles in nine countries and regions. Now in her third year leading the innovative pharmaceutical business in China, the core of the conversation is to answer an essential question: when market changes accelerate and competition becomes increasingly fierce, how does a century-old company maintain its long-term commitment?

Don’t rely on “a single strategy to conquer all”

Huang has a clear understanding of the Chinese market: China is not “one market,” but “a cluster of markets.” Medical institutions across provinces differ significantly in policies, management mechanisms, and diagnostic capabilities. Companies must possess both “central strategic clarity” and “regional implementation capabilities.”

Meanwhile, the competitive landscape in China differs from other countries—an emerging wave of excellent local innovative companies is rising, and patients and clinicians face more choices. Huang’s response is not blind expansion but focused concentration. Johnson & Johnson Innovation consistently targets the most urgent medical needs, focusing on core areas such as hematologic tumors, solid tumors, inflammatory bowel disease, psoriasis, and neuroscience, channeling resources into breakthrough innovation.

“More competition isn’t better; deeper competition is better.” This is her answer to navigating a complex market.

Why is the “last mile” difficult?

Huang uses a patient story to highlight a common industry pain point: approval of an innovative drug in China, or inclusion in insurance, is just the beginning of its true benefit to patients.

In 2025, Johnson & Johnson’s innovative drug guselkumab achieved the first global approval for Crohn’s disease in China and was officially included in the national medical insurance in January this year. A young hairstylist in Chongqing, who had long suffered from the disease and previously failed biologic treatments, was able to access this innovative drug approved earlier than in the US. Similar stories occur in hematologic tumors—2025’s approval of tazemetostat helped a 76-year-old Ningbo patient with high-risk multiple myeloma, who had undergone five years of recurrent treatments, regain control of his condition.

However, Huang admits that these stories are worth sharing precisely because the “last mile” is not always smooth. After drug approval, whether it enters hospitals or is included in local social insurance schemes involves multi-party coordination. This is not a point-by-point execution issue but a systemic structural challenge that must be addressed.

It’s not just about pharmaceuticals but supporting the entire disease course

Huang repeatedly mentions building a “patient-centered ecosystem,” but emphasizes that this ecosystem “lacks a unified model.”

Because each disease has different characteristics, patient needs vary greatly. For some diseases, the core difficulty lies in diagnosis—requiring focused efforts to establish standardized clinical recognition pathways. For others, like psoriasis, clinical practices are relatively mature, but the pain point is social stigma and workplace discrimination faced by patients. To address this, Johnson & Johnson launched the “No Silver in This Place” public welfare project in 2024, promoting social understanding of psoriasis through white papers and micro-videos.

In multiple myeloma, most patients are elderly, and the physical and mental exhaustion from long-term treatment is a key issue. Johnson & Johnson collaborated with experts to scientifically improve traditional Baduanjin (eight-section brocade) exercises, helping elderly patients regain a sense of control over their lives. This initiative quickly sparked enthusiasm among patients nationwide.

“Although pharmaceuticals are in our name, we shouldn’t just provide drugs—we need to support patients—help them be understood and respected.”

The underlying logic of trade-offs

In highly complex markets, managers make daily trade-offs. Huang shares her management philosophy: be firm on principles, be soft on people, be resilient in implementation.

She quotes Einstein’s idea—“Humans should spend 99% of their time defining the problem.” Before rushing to solutions, clarify exactly what problem we are solving. If it’s a pseudo-need, the best choice is not to solve it. When decisions involve trade-offs, she returns to Johnson & Johnson’s “Our Credo”—consider not only business outcomes but also the overall impact on patients, employees, society, and investors.

In China, Huang condenses this value system into a “Wings” culture—high compliance, high trust, high performance. These three elements follow a progressive logic: compliance is the entry rule, trust is the prerequisite for addressing issues, and performance is the carrier that sustains corporate value.

Looking ahead to the next five years

In the final phase of “Healthy China 2030,” Huang has set three clear directions for Johnson & Johnson Innovation - China: first, continue to pursue breakthrough innovation, aiming to introduce 40 new drugs or indications; second, support China’s local innovation ecosystem, enabling Chinese innovations to benefit global patients; third, cultivate more leaders who move from frontline roles to management, promoting Chinese talent onto Johnson & Johnson’s international stage.

These three strands focus on products, ecosystem, and people. In a market where policies are continuously favorable but implementation still faces friction, they collectively answer the same question: the long-term presence of a multinational pharmaceutical company in China depends not on convincing headquarters but on long-term value judgment—and then turning that judgment into action, action into results.

As Huang recommends in her final interview, two books: “You Are Like a Bird Flying to Your Mountain,” about continuous self-reinvention by breaking cognitive boundaries; and “When Breath Becomes Air,” about the courage to do what’s right even in fear. For a company with a 140-year history and a rapidly changing market, the former is about capability, the latter about choice. The combination of capability and choice determines who can survive cycles.

Special issue | All data in the article are sourced from interviews and publicly available information; reproduction without permission is prohibited.

On Fortune Plus, readers have shared many insightful and thought-provoking opinions on this article. Let’s take a look. You are also welcome to join us and share your thoughts. Other hot topics today:

Check out the精彩观点 of “Emerging from the Shadow of Pricing: Combating Gold Price Fluctuations”

Check out the精彩观点 of “Warren Buffett admits the original charity plan is ‘impractical,’ new plan revealed”