ShanghaiRanking, a professional organization on higher education evaluation, published the “2024 Ranking of Best Chinese Subjects” on October 15, 2024. The Pharmaceutical Science subject at WMU reached the 3%-7% range, advancing to the top 7% and ranking 8th nationally. This marks a leap of 4 places from the ranking in 2023, making the subject stand at the forefront of its counterparts in China.

The ranking covers 94 primary category disciplines, encompassing 4,924 disciplines across 486 universities. Nine of WMU’s disciplines have made it to the list, including Pharmaceutical Science, Clinical Medicine, Traditional Chinese Pharmacology, Basic Medicine Science, Biology, Stomatology, Nursing, Biomedical Engineering, and Public Management, accounting for 81% of the university’s total primary category disciplines. Notably, Biomedical Engineering and Nursing have been newly added to the list, and some advantageous disciplines have achieved new heights.

Led by Professor Li Xiaokun, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the Pharmaceutical Science subject at WMU boasts 25 national high-level talents, including faculty recognized as the Chang Jiang Scholars and received support from the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars. The subject has successively been recognized as a Top Priority Primary Discipline, a First-Class A-Level Discipline, an Advantageous and Characteristic Discipline of the Key Construction University, and a Peak Discipline in Zhejiang Province. Supported by three national-level research platforms, the National Engineering Research Center for Growth Factor Drugs and Protein Preparations, the National Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Drugs and Large-Scale Preparation, and the Zhejiang Province-Ministry of Education Joint Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedicine, the subject holds a leading position in the field of growth factor protein drug research and development both domestically and internationally and has established a comprehensive discipline development system, spearheaded by protein drugs and featuring ophthalmic drugs.

The research team has published over 300 high-quality papers as corresponding and first authors in prestigious journals such as Nature, Cell Metabolism, and Molecular Cell in recent years. Besides, the team has obtained numerous accolades, including a Second Prize of the National Natural Science Award, a Second Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, a Second Prize of the National Technological Invention Award, and six first-prize awards at the provincial and ministerial level. Additionally, the team has received two Second Prizes in the National Teaching Achievement Award and has led the establishment of the "China Gene Medicine Valley", a hub for biomedicine innovation. Furthermore, three new Category-1 FGF drugs developed by the team have been applied in over 6,500 hospitals nationwide, serving more than 100 million cases of trauma patients. Moreover, the team has been approved for three investigational new drug applications and served over ten biopharmaceutical companies through an innovation system, generating economic benefits exceeding 20 billion RMB.

The ShanghaiRanking’s Ranking of Best Chinese Subjects is based on an evaluation system that covers five major categories: talent cultivation, platforms & projects, achievements & awards, academic papers, and high-level talents. These categories are further divided into 18 indicators, with over 70 variables that reflect the competitiveness of the subjects. All ranking data is sourced from third-party data sources such as the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and international and domestic literature databases. Subjects ranked in the top 3% (or top 2) nationwide are classified as "China's Top Subjects," and those in the top 7% (or top 3) and top 12% (or top 4) are recognized as "China's First-Class Subjects."