New Delhi, April 21 -- The old pharma order anchored around cutting-edge advances in the West has quietly disappeared. What we have now is a bipolar industry centred on the US and China-with implications for patients and policymakers worldwide.

China has closed the gap on the number of research studies being conducted and in certain cases even moved ahead of the West on developing new treatments. Global drugmakers understand this shift very well-having inked hundreds of billions of dollars in deals over the past five years to license promising Chinese innovations for sale overseas to replenish their coffers.

US President Donald Trump, in particular, needs to reconsider the wisdom of demanding another year of cuts to America's biggest sc...