Medical Advances Soar With APAC’S CLINICAL TRIAL GROWTH

It's universally acknowledged that Asia-Pacific (APAC) is a hotbed for clinical trials, with multiple reports confirming that it is the only region in the world to have seen a consistent surge in clinical trial activity.

- Ayesha Siddiqui

In the last five years, China, India, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore emerged as key pillars of APAC’s growing clinical trial ecosystem. Together, these six countries accounted for nearly 40,000 trials (39,843* in total) from 2020 to mid-2025.

A comparative analysis of six major countries— India, Australia, China, South Korea, Japan, and Singapore shows that China leads in the absolute number of trials (25,329), followed by South Korea (5,059), Australia (3,821), Japan (2,541), India (1,914), and Singapore (1,179). While each country brings unique strengths to the region’s clinical development ecosystem, industry sponsorship dominates overall, with particularly high shares in Japan (93 per cent), Australia (83 per cent), and South Korea (60 per cent). In contrast, India and China have a more academically driven profile, with public institutions and hospitals sponsoring the majority of trials. Singapore is more balanced (47 per cent industry / 53 per cent academia), but again, most industry trials are from global companies, not domestic biopharma.

In a phase-wise analysis, Australia and South Korea show a clear focus on early-to-mid-phase research, with over 60 per cent of trials in phase 1 or phase 2, reflecting their role in first-in-human, dose-ranging, and proof-of-concept studies. Japan and India are more concentrated in phase 3 trials, with Japan conducting 1,116 and India 506, which together account for nearly half of all trials in each country. China presents a strong early- and mid- phase pipeline with 4,177 phase 1 and 5,808 phase 2 trials, along with 6,684 non-phased studies that likely include real-world, traditional medicine, or device-focused research. Singapore, though smaller in overall volume, follows a mid- to late-stage pattern with 200 phase 2 and 260 phase 3 trials.