Has China found a way to make your drugs cheaper? Scientists think so

Chinese scientists claim to have cracked a 140-year-old chemistry challenge that could make the production of cancer drugs and other complex medicines safer and more affordable

Since the advent of modern medicine, one persistent question has remained — how affordable are life-saving drugs for everyone? As research and innovation advanced, access and affordability became increasingly complex challenges. Now, a team of Chinese scientists claim to have found an answer to this long-standing problem — a discovery some have called worthy of a Nobel Prize.

 

Scientists in China have reportedly cracked a 140-year-old chemistry challenge that could make the production of cancer drugs and other complex medicines safer and more affordable. The breakthrough, reported by the South China Morning Post and published in Nature journal, was led by Zhang Xiaheng from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study and Xue Xiaosong from the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry.

 

Their research proposes a simpler and safer alternative to a long-standing industrial method used for synthesising compounds known as amines, which are essential building blocks for drugs, pesticides, and dyes.

 

Pfizer’s senior principal scientist Scott Bagley, who reviewed the paper, described the work as a “tour de force”. Several Chinese researchers have even called the achievement “Nobel Prize level”, SCMP reported.

What is the chemistry breakthrough about?

 

For more than a century, chemists have relied on the Sandmeyer reaction — a process introduced in 1884 by Swiss chemist Traugott Sandmeyer — to convert aromatic amines into valuable raw materials using diazonium salts.

 

While effective, the method is complex, costly, and poses major safety risks. The unstable nature of diazonium salts has led to frequent industrial hazards, including explosions.

 

Zhang’s team sought a safer solution. According to the Hangzhou Bureau of Science and Technology, as quoted by SCMP, they spent three years exploring direct transformation pathways for aromatic amines. Their answer was to use nitro groups instead of diazoniums — a method that eliminates the need for expensive metal catalysts and multiple production steps.

 

The researchers described their approach as a “one-pot” reaction — a single process that uses only simple, readily available reagents to produce the desired compounds.

How efficient and scalable is the new method?

 

The team tested over 170 chemical raw materials, including antiviral and other complex drug molecules. The new method successfully converted these into desired products with yields between 46 and 83 per cent.

 

In kilogram-scale trials simulating real industrial settings, success rates reached up to 90 per cent, according to the Nature study cited by SCMP.

 

Zhang told Chemical & Engineering News that he believed the innovation would “really benefit” industrial chemists and manufacturers by reducing both cost and risk.

What could this mean for global drug production?

 

Following the publication of their research, Zhang’s team began collaborating with local pharmaceutical and chemical companies to explore practical applications.

 

The Hangzhou Science Bureau said the breakthrough could reshape manufacturing in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and dyes — industries that have long depended on the traditional Sandmeyer route.

 

On Chinese social media, the discovery has drawn wide attention, SCMP reported. A specialist account called Life Sciences Frontier said production costs for generic, high-tech anticancer drugs could fall significantly once the new method is adopted, making treatments “more affordable for the masses”.

 

While researchers and industry experts remain cautious about predicting immediate commercial outcomes, the consensus is that China’s new “one-pot” method could mark a turning point in how vital chemicals are made — bringing a 19th-century process into the modern era.