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Eric Ng

Julie Zhang

The ferocity of China’s biopharmaceutical investment boom this year – fuelled by record-breaking licensing of commercial rights to global giants after a three-year slump – may have surprised casual observers.
But according to Helen Chen, one of the most respected analysts and advisers in China’s life sciences space, the supercharged sector’s real renaissance came two years earlier.
In December 2022, US drug maker MSD agreed to license global (excluding China) rights to develop and commercialise seven preclinical antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) cancer candidates from Sichuan Kelun-Biotech Biopharmaceutical, paying US$175 million upfront and up to US$9.3 billion in milestone payments.
“The Kelun – MSD deal was a significant milestone,” said Chen, who heads the Shanghai-based biopharmaceutical and life sciences practice L.E.K. Consulting. “There was a leap of faith for MSD to take a chance on Kelun – and for Kelun to make the investments.”
ADCs – “guided-missile” therapies that deliver chemotherapy directly to cancer cells with fewer side effects – are among the fastest growing areas of biotech.




Eight months later, private-equity-backed Aiolos licensed global rights for an asthma treatment from Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals for an undisclosed sum.
Aiolos was sold just a few months later to the UK’s GSK for US$1 billion upfront and up to US$400 million in success based payments.
“That was the transaction that really put China’s out-licensing opportunity on the global map,” said Chen, who has followed the sector since the early 2000s.
Only this year did mainstream investors grasp the full strength of the turnaround.
The Hang Seng Biotech index – which tracks the 50 largest biotech, pharmaceutical and medical-device firms listed in Hong Kong – surged as much as 112 per cent this year, rising on the back of a series of major licensing deals, after a 70 per cent slide between mid-2021 and late 2023.
A correction in the past three weeks pared the year-to-date gain to around 85 per cent, but the gauge still dramatically outperformed the Hang Seng Index’s 30.6 per cent gain and a 23.5 per cent rise of the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index over the same period.
Chinese firms struck 103 out-licensing deals worth US$92 billion in the first nine months of the year – 77 per cent more than the whole of 2024 – according to data provider Pharmacube.
Among deals worth at least US$1 billion, Chinese transactions made up 38 per cent of the global total. Adding Innovent Biologics’ US$11.4 billion out-licensing deal with Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceuticals in October, the annual tally has already topped US$100 billion.
China’s ability to produce world-class biochemical engineers at lower cost, coupled with strong state backing and a huge domestic market, was giving Chinese drugmakers a competitive edge, said Mu Hua, global chief medical officer at Duality Biotherapeutics and a former Genentech medical director.
“It took decades for Japan’s top firms like Takeda and Daiichi Sankyo to globalise,” he said. “Chinese firms should be able to achieve the same level in a shorter time frame, but they must proactively develop overseas markets through partnerships.”
Shanghai-based Duality, which has ADC development partnerships with BioNTech, GSK and BeOne Medicines, is among those bridging that gap.
The progress was also evident at the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting in Berlin in October, where the number of “late-breaking abstracts” by Chinese researchers – reserved for clinical studies with the potential to change treatment practice – jumped to 31 from seven a year earlier out of a total of 110, according to Soochow Securities analyst Zhu Guoguang.
“A major difference in this year’s ESMO meeting is that the ‘China voice’ has finally entered the world-leading ranks of innovative drugs research,” he said in a report on October 26.
Beijing’s push for technological self-sufficiency has also helped lay the groundwork.
China now produces around half of the world’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates, including 120,000 PhDs a year – triple the US total, ClearBridge Investments noted.
“Just five years ago, China was dependent on Western firms for access to leading drugs,” wrote ClearBridge portfolio manager Elisa Mazen and analyst Marshall Gordon. “Today it is investing heavily in the R&D needed to create its own therapeutics – and the results are beginning to show.”
While Chinese companies were not yet leaders in breakthrough “blockbuster” drugs, they were already global front-runners in commercial cancer treatments, having overtaken the US in the number of clinical trials in 2021, analysts noted.
Costs were another advantage: upfront payments for China-developed drug candidates were typically 60 to 70 per cent lower than those for Western peers, and 40 to 50 per cent less when subsequent performance-based payments were included, according to a Jefferies research report published in July.
Timelines for drug discovery in China could also be 30 to 50 per cent faster than the global industry average, the research noted.
Patent expirations on blockbuster medicines – those generating more than US$1 billion in annual sales – and diminishing returns from in-house R&D were prompting major Western drugmakers to rethink their pipelines and look to China for innovation, according to a September report by Morgan Stanley.
The bank estimated that about US$115 billion in revenue at leading US and European pharmaceutical companies was tied to drugs whose patents would lapse by 2035.
As they search for replacements, Chinese-developed candidates are expected to play a growing role.
Morgan Stanley predicted that by 2040, drugs originating in China could account for 35 per cent of new approvals by the US Food and Drug Administration, up from around 5 per cent today.
Against that backdrop, six Chinese biopharmaceutical firms have stood out for the strength of their innovation and the depth of their global partnerships, earning recognition as the country’s most credible challengers on the world stage.
Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals
Based in Lianyungang, in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, and listed in both Shanghai and Hong Kong, Jiangsu Hengrui ranked second globally in the number of self-developed drugs in its pipeline, based on data from consultancy Citeline cited in its interim report.
With a market capitalisation of HK$465 billion (US$59 billion), the company reported a 21 per cent year-on-year increase in net profit to 5.59 billion yuan (US$785 million) for the first nine months of the year.
In July, Hengrui signed a licensing deal with the UK’s GSK, which agreed to pay US$500 million upfront for global rights to develop a dozen of its drug candidates. The deal includes potential milestone payments of up to US$12 billion if all performance targets are met.
Innovent Biologics
Headquartered in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, Innovent Biologics was founded in 2011 and listed in Hong Kong in 2018.
With a market value of HK$149 billion, the company posted a net profit of 834 million yuan in the first half of the year, reversing a loss of 392.6 million yuan in the same period a year earlier. It has launched 16 drugs to date, with two under regulatory review and 19 more in clinical trials.
HSBC analysts said in a report that a co-development agreement signed with Takeda in October 2025 would strengthen Innovent’s overseas clinical execution capabilities and regulatory expertise.
Akeso
Founded in 2012 and based in Zhongshan, in southern China’s Guangdong province, Akeso is listed in Hong Kong with a market capitalisation of HK$106.48 billion.
The company reported a net loss of 570 million yuan for the first half of the year, narrowing from 823 million yuan in the same period last year. Revenue rose 44 per cent year on year to 1.41 billion yuan, driven by strong sales of its oncology drugs.
Akeso is best known for developing the cancer drug ivonescimab, which clinical trials have shown can delay the progression of non-small-cell lung cancer by five months longer than Merck’s blockbuster Keytruda. Ivonescimab has so far been approved only in China, while its US partner Summit Therapeutics is still seeking regulatory approval in the United States, but so far without success.
Hansoh Pharmaceutical
Established in 1995 as a Sino-foreign joint venture in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, Hansoh Pharmaceutical is now a Hong Kong-listed company with a market capitalisation of HK$210.9 billion.
The firm has struck multiple out-licensing agreements with major international partners.
In June, it granted US-based Regeneron Pharmaceuticals exclusive global rights – excluding China – to develop an obesity and diabetes drug currently in late-stage clinical trials, in a deal worth up to US$2 billion.
In October, Hansoh signed another deal with Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche involving potential payments of up to US$1.53 billion for the development rights to an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting solid tumours.
Sichuan Biokin Pharmaceutical
Founded in 1996 in the southwestern province of Sichuan, Biokin specialises in innovative oncology therapies, including ADCs and multi-specific antibodies that bind to multiple targets while directing the immune system to destroy tumour cells.
After listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Star Market in 2023, Biokin applied in September to float shares in Hong Kong. The company aims to establish full global commercialisation capabilities by 2029.
A key milestone was its licensing deal with US-based Bristol Myers Squibb for an ADC for various cancers – a deal that carries potential performance-based revenue of up to US$8.4 billion.
Sichuan Kelun-Biotech Biopharmaceutical
Based in Chengdu, Sichuan province, and founded in 2016, Sichuan Kelun-Biotech went public in Hong Kong in 2023, with its shares soaring 160 per cent since listing.
It was the first Chinese company to license domestically developed ADC candidates to a top-10 global biopharmaceutical company, according to Frost & Sullivan, referring to its December 2022 deal with US-based MSD.
In the first half of the year, the company spent 611.5 million yuan on research and development, supporting a pipeline of more than 30 drug candidates, including over 10 already in clinical trials.


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China’s biotech renaissance is gathering pace as home-grown innovators strike billion-dollar licensing deals with global giants


China’s biotech renaissance is gathering pace as home-grown innovators strike billion-dollar licensing deals with global giants.


6 of the best: how China’s new biotech vanguard is banking billions from breakthroughs

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}China’s biotech renaissance is gathering pace as home-grown innovators strike billion-dollar licensing deals with global giants

China’s biotech renaissance is gathering pace as home-grown innovators strike billion-dollar licensing deals with global giants