China’s biotech renaissance is gathering pace as home-grown innovators strike billion-dollar licensing deals with global giants. China’s biopharmaceutical investment boom this year – fueled by record-breaking licensing of commercial rights to global giants after a three-year slump – may have surprised casual observers. But the supercharged sector’s real renaissance came two years earlier. In December 2022, U.S. drug maker MSD agreed to license the global rights – excluding China – to develop and commercialize seven preclinical antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) cancer candidates from Sichuan Kelun-Biotech Biopharmaceutical, paying USD175 million upfront and up to USD9.3 billion in milestone payments. “The Kelun–MSD deal was a significant milestone,” said Helen Chen, CEO of the Shanghai-based bio-pharmaceutical 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 USD1 billion upfront and up to USD400 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% this year, rising on the back of a series of major licensing deals, after a 70% slide between mid-2021 and late 2023. Chinese firms struck 103 out-licensing deals worth USD92 billion in the first nine months of the year – 77% more than the whole of 2024 – according to data provider Pharmacube.
Among deals worth at least USD1 billion, Chinese transactions made up 38% of the global total. Adding Innovent Biologics’ USD11.4 billion out-licensing deal with Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceuticals in October, the annual tally has already topped USD100 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, 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 globalize,” 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.” The progress was also evident at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 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.
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, 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. In July, Hengrui signed a licensing deal with the UK’s GSK, which agreed to pay USD500 million upfront for global rights to develop a dozen of its drug candidates.
Innovent Biologics: Headquartered in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, Innovent Biologics, founded in 2011 and listed in Hong Kong in 2018, has launched 16 drugs to date, with two under regulatory review and 19 more in clinical trials. A co-development agreement was signed with Takeda in October 2025.
Akeso: Founded in 2012 and based in Zhongshan, Guangdong province, 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 Keytruda. Ivonescimab has so far been approved only in China.
Hansoh Pharmaceutical: Established in 1995 as a Sino-foreign joint venture in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, Hansoh Pharmaceutical granted U.S.-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 USD2 billion.
Sichuan Biokin Pharmaceutical: Founded in 1996 in Sichuan province, Biokin specializes in innovative oncology therapies, including ADCs and multi-specific antibodies that bind to multiple targets while directing the immune system to destroy tumor cells. A key milestone was its licensing deal with US-based Bristol Myers Squibb.
Sichuan Kelun-Biotech Biopharmaceutical: Based in Chengdu, Sichuan province, and founded in 2016, Kelun-Biotech was the first Chinese company to license domestically developed ADC candidates to a top-10 global biopharmaceutical company. In the first half of the year, the company spent CNY611.5 million on research and development (R&D), supporting a pipeline of more than 30 drug candidates, including over 10 already in clinical trials.
