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Big pharma ramps Chinese biotech licensing deals despite US scrutiny
Licensing activity has surged, with $43 billion in agreements with Chinese firms in the first five months of the year and 81 out-licensing deals worth $110 billion by June.
Big pharma has accelerated licensing deals with Chinese biotechs even as Washington pushes to restrict the practice, according to Yahoo Finance. The outlet frames the shift as ongoing commercial dealmaking despite a growing US focus on national security in outbound investment.
The article cites $43 billion in licensing agreements with Chinese companies in the first five months of the year. By June, Chinese biotechs had struck 81 out-licensing deals worth $110 billion, described as about 80% of all such deals completed last year.
It also notes that Chinese firms accounted for roughly 6 of every 26 major pharma deals over the past 16 months, valued at $53 billion. The deals are characterized as increasingly large, including AbbVie’s $5.6 billion deal with RemeGen for tumor drugs, AstraZeneca’s work with CSPC on diabetes and obesity drugs, and Pfizer’s cancer drug agreement with 3SBio, which included a $1.25 billion upfront payment for a non-small cell lung cancer program.
The article says deal structures are changing as well, with companies licensing broader drug discovery platforms rather than single molecules. It adds that upfront payments to Chinese partners have more than tripled, rising from about $52 million on average in 2022 to $172 million in early 2026, while Washington continues to work toward a national-security screening regime for biotech activity with China.