Chinese-developed innovative drugs accelerate overseas expansion

(ECNS) -- Chinese drug companies are speeding up their overseas expansion of innovative drugs, with multiple deals signed with foreign pharmaceutical companies since October this year.

Innovent Biologics, a Chinese drugmaker, announced this week that it entered into a strategic business development (BD) agreement with Takeda, licensing intellectual property for two late-stage pipeline drugs to the Japanese pharmaceutical company to accelerate their development in the fields of oncology immunotherapy (IO) and antibody-drug conjugates (ADC).

The deal, valued at $11.4 billion, sets a record for Chinese companies' global push into innovative drugs. Meanwhile, the country's other drugmakers, including Hansoh, Beijing Ausaikang and Nanjing Leads Biolabs, also announced “business development” deals worth tens of millions of dollars with their counterparts overseas this month.

China’s innovative drug sector is becoming one of the most active forces in global pharmaceutical BD. During the first half of 2025 alone, the total transaction value of overseas licensing deals by Chinese pharmaceutical companies has already reached last year’s full-year level, according to a note by CSPI Ratings.

Bao Jingang, a fund manager at Shenzhen Rongzhi Private Securities said that the surge in BD deals for Chinese innovative drugs is no coincidence - it represents the “concentrated realization” of China’s innovative pharmaceutical industry entering the global mainstream.

It currently is the “dominant path” for Chinese innovative drugs entering the global market, according to Zhang Xiaorong, president of the DeepTech Research Institute.

The model offers shorter cycles, lower costs, and fewer risks than setting up independent development groups overseas, Zhang said.

(By Zhang Jiahao)