Not long after taking the helm of GlaxoSmithKline in 2008, Sir Andrew Witty visited Shanghai to deliver a message along with the heavy investment his company was pouring into China. “For GSK,” he said, “the centre of gravity is moving east.”

For a while, the big strategic bets placed on China by GSK and other drugmakers looked like paying off as the country’s increasingly affluent, urbanised and ageing population clamoured for access to modern healthcare.

By 2012, the market was growing at an annual rate of 24 per cent and surpassed Japan to become the second-biggest after the US. Then, suddenly, the party stopped. By the middle of this year, growth was down to just 5 per cent — bad news for an industry relying on places like China to offset stagnation in Europe and price pressures in the US.