Why China Biotech Is Getting a DeepSeek Moment, Too
The country is emerging as an attractive place for Big Pharma to chase billion-dollar licensing deals.
China’s biotech industry is shaping up as an attractive place for Big Pharma
Photographer: China News Service/Getty Images
From artificial intelligence to military defense, China has offered a few DeepSeek moments this year, showcasing that the country is more than just the world’s biggest factory, and that it also can compete with the US on the technology front. Now biotech is having its own.
In late May, Pfizer Inc. agreed to pay a record $1.25 billion upfront to license an experimental cancer drug from Shenyang-based 3SBio Inc., as well as making a $100 million equity investment in the Hong Kong-listed biotech company. Two weeks later, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said it would pay BioNTech SE $1.5 billion guaranteed to license a similar cancer asset. It was a win for BioNTech, which bought Biotheus Inc., the Chinese company that developed the drug, late last year for $800 million.