Abstract:The pharmaceutical manufacturing data in 1995 ~ 2015 was selected as a samples. The profitability is measured by main business profit rate, R&D investment is measured by R&D investment intensity. Based on the co-integration theory, the error correction model was established and the Granger causality test was carried out to study the correlation between the variables. The result shows that in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, the improvement of profitability can increase R&D investment, however, there needs a long process to make R&D investment increase the profitability. Therefore, it is important for enterprises in pharmaceutical manufacturing to improve their profitability, inject stable and sustainable capital into R&D activities, improve the efficiency of R&D activities and accelerate the commercialization of research results.