OBJECTIVE： To investigate the updates of medical research and development （R&D） in China， and to provide reference of R&D strategies for medical enterprises. METHODS： Collected the data issued from the official website of National Bureau of Statistic， Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and China Food and Drug Administration， combined with related policies and systems issued by the states， the updates of medical R&D were analyzed from the R&D input， drug varieties， structure of drug products， internal quality of R&D and R&D field layout， etc. RESULTS & CONCLUSIONS： The intensity and growth rate of medical R&D expenditures will increase rapidly in the future. The amount of applications and approvals for drug consistency evaluation and reevaluation based on supplementary application will get bigger. The development model of generic drug will be transformed from “rushing for imitation” to the global mainstream strategy of patent challenge. R&D varieties will change from imitation to innovation. That drug R&D enhance quality management will become the consensus of the industry. The past extensive drug R&D will be upgraded to go ahead the intensive and science-oriented way. Orphan drugs， pediatric drugs and innovative biological products will be paid more attention in the R&D. That generic drugs challenge patents will be more common. Based on this， it is suggested that pharmaceutical enterprises should carry out work from the above five aspects， increase R&D investment and improve efficiency， pay attention to the value of individual R&D varieties rather than quantity， timely adjust the structure of R&D varieties， carry out R&D quality management， and optimize the layout of R&D fields. The pharmaceutical enterprises should selectively carry out R&D of innovative biological products， orphan drugs and pediatric drugs， timely follow-up， analysis and evaluation of patents， strive for the “first generic drug” of the market， and seize market opportunities.