China's pharmaceutical firms saw their combined business revenue climb 18.7 percent year on year in 2021, the highest growth rate in five years, official data showed Tuesday.

Companies in this sector together raked in 3.37 trillion yuan (about 502 billion U.S. dollars) in revenue last year, Zhou Jian, an official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told a press conference.

Their total profits stood at 708.75 billion yuan in 2021, up 67.3 percent from a year ago, Zhou said.

The industry's value-added output rose 23.1 percent year on year, 13.5 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate, bringing its share in China's total industrial output to 4.1 percent.

Research and development also yielded solid results last year, Zhou noted, adding that the number of new drugs and medical equipment approved to enter the market was the highest in five years.