Pfizer’s $10.5-billion partnering deal with China’s Innovent Biologics is the latest deal between the bio/pharmaceutical majors and China-based innovator drug companies. Is China becoming a force in innovation?

By Patricia Van Arnum, Editorial Director, DCAT, pvanarnum@dcat.org 

China coming into play
Partnering, whether through mergers and acquisitions (M&A) or licensing deals between China-headquartered innovator drug companies and multinational bio/pharma companies, has become part of the innovation ecosystem, with the number of such deals reaching a recent high in 2025 (1). This trend is continuing into 2026 with several deals announced to date.

The latest deals 
Pfizer’s $10.5-billion deal ($650 million upfront payment and $9.85 billion in milestone payments) with Innovent Biologics (HQ: Suzhou, China) last week (May 28, 2026) is the latest example of a China-based innovator drug company partnering with one of the bio/pharma majors. The partnership includes licensing, co-development, and co-commercialization opportunities across a portfolio of antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) with differentiated payloads and multi-specific antibodies, consisting of 12 programs—eight Innovent-originated early-stage programs and four Pfizer-proposed discovery programs. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to fulfillment of required regulatory approvals. 

Pfizer is also partnered with 3SBio (HQ: Shenyang, China) in an exclusive global, ex-China, licensing agreement for the development, manufacturing, and commercialization of 3Sbio’s SSGJ-707, an investigational bispecific antibody for treating multiple cancers, in a deal worth up to $6 billion ($1.25 billion upfront, a $100-million equity stake by Pfizer in 3SBio, and $4.8 billion in milestone payments). SSGJ-707 is a bispecific antibody currently undergoing several clinical trials in China for non-small cell lung cancer, metastatic colorectal cancer, and gynecological tumors. The companies announced the deal in 2025 (May 2025).  

Other bio/pharmaceutical majors have announced large deals in 2026 and 2025 with China-based innovator drug companies, including Eli Lilly and Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), Takeda, AbbVie, AstraZeneca, and Sanofi.   

Earlier this year (February 2026), Lilly and Innovent entered an agreement to advance medicines in oncology and immunology, in a deal worth up to $8.8 billion ($350 million upfront and $8.5 billion in milestone payments). Innovent will lead the development of programs from concept through clinical proof-of-concept (Phase II clinical trial completion) in China. The agreement grants Lilly an exclusive license to develop and commercialize the programs worldwide outside Greater China while Innovent retains rights in Greater China.   

Lilly also announced in 2026 a licensing and research collaboration with Haisco Pharmaceutical Group, a Beijing-based bio/pharmaceutical company, to develop innovative medicines across multiple therapeutic areas, in a deal worth up to $3 billion ($87 million upfront and $2.9 billion in milestone payments). Haisco will be responsible for the discovery and identification of up to five innovative target programs while Lilly will lead investigational new drug (IND)-enabling studies, clinical development, and commercialization. Lilly will obtain exclusive worldwide rights to certain programs, and exclusive rights outside mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan (the Haisco territory) for certain other programs while Haisco will retain rights within the Haisco territory for those programs.  Haisco will be eligible to receive up to $87 million in upfront and near-term payments, up to $2.967 million in all remaining downstream milestones, as well as single-digit tiered royalties on future product sales.

Lilly also partnered in January (January 2026) with Insilico Medicine  (co-HQ Hong Kong and Boston) in a $2.75-billion drug-discovery and development collaboration ($115 million upfront payment plus milestones payments and tiered royalties on future sales). The deal grants Lilly an exclusive worldwide license for the development, manufacturing, and commercialization of oral therapeutics, now in preclinical development for multiple indications, discovered with Insilico’s AI-based drug-discovery engine. The companies had previously signed a $100-million pact last November (November 2025).  

Last month (May 2026), Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) and Hengrui Pharma (HQ: Lianyungang and Shanghai, China) entered into global strategic collaboration and license agreements to advance a portfolio of 13 early-stage programs in oncology, hematology, and immunology, in a deal worth up to $15.2 billion ($600 million upfront and $14.6 billion in milestone payments). The agreements include four oncology/hematology assets from Hengrui, four immunology assets from BMS, and five innovative assets to be jointly discovered and developed by both companies.  

Other deals announced in 2026 include a pact announced in January between AbbVie and RemeGen (HQ: Yantei, China) for the development, manufacturing and commercialization of RemeGen’s RC148, an investigational bispecific antibody in oncology in a deal worth up to $5.6 billion ($650 million upfront and $4.95 billion in milestone payments). RC148 is being developed by RemeGen as a monotherapy and in combination regimens across multiple advanced solid tumors. RC148 also potentially provides opportunities to explore combination regimens with AbbVie’s ADCs such as its investigational drug candidate, telisotuzumab adizutecan, across multiple solid tumors, including non-small cell lung cancer and colorectal cancer. 

In March (March 2026), Sanofi inked an exclusive license with Chia Tai Tianqing Pharmaceutical Group, a subsidiary of Sino Biopharmaceutical (HQ: Hong Kong) that grants Sanofi an exclusive license to develop, manufacture, and commercialize rovadicitinib, a small-molecule drug for treating certain blood cancers, in a $1.53-million deal ($135 million upfront and $1.395 in milestone payments). Rovadicitnib was approved for marketing by China’s National Medical Products Administration in February (February 2026) for the first-line treatment of adult patients with certain blood cancers: intermediate-2 or high-risk primary myelofibrosis, post-polycythemia vera myelofibrosis, or post-essential thrombocythemia myelofibrosis. The drug is also under clinical development for treating chronic graft-versus-host disease. In China, it has advanced to Phase III trials, and in the US, it has been approved for Phase II clinical studies.   

AstraZeneca announced a $4.7-billion deal ($1.2 billion upfront and $3.5 billion in milestone payments) in January (January 2026) with CSPC Pharmaceuticals (HQ: Shijiazhuang, China) for eight programs in obesity and Type 2 diabetes.  The companies will initially progress four programs, which use CSPC’s AI peptide drug-discovery platform and its proprietary LiquidGel once-monthly dosing platform technology. Under the deal, which is slated to close in the second quarter of 2026, CSPC will receive an upfront payment of $1.2 billion from AstraZeneca and is also eligible to receive development and regulatory milestones of up to $3.5 billion across all programs and will also be eligible for further commercialization and sales milestones plus tiered royalties. 

AstraZeneca and CSPC Pharmaceuticals inked a $5.3-billion deal last June (June 2025) to discover and develop preclinical candidates for multiple targets across chronic disease indications, including a preclinical small-molecule oral therapy for immunological diseases. Under the deal CSPC received an upfront payment of $110 million and is also eligible to receive up to $1.62 billion in potential development milestone payments and up to $3.6 billion in sales milestone payments, plus potential single digit royalties based on annual net sales of the products. The companies also partnered in 2024 in a nearly $2.0-billion deal ($100 million upfront and $1.92 billion in milestone payments) for a preclinical small molecule lipoprotein for treating dyslipidemia (high cholesterol). 

Policy waves in the making 
A potential curb or limits to this type of investment was proposed this week  (June 2, 2026) in the form of a bipartisan bill introduced in the US House of Representatives. John Moolenaar (R-MI), Chair of the House Select Committee on China, and Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (D-MI) introduced the Biotech Investment National Security Act (BINSA), which would subject investments for biotechnology, including pharmaceutical development, biologics manufacturing, and clinical research and development, to the review requirements of the Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security (COINS) Act, which was signed into law in late December (December 2025) under larger legislation, the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. The COINS Act codified and expanded the US Department of the Treasury’s Outbound Investment Security Program, which restricts US outbound investment in certain sensitive technologies, such as semiconductor technology and microelectronics, high-performance computing and supercomputing, to entities in countries of concern in consideration of US natural security purposes.  

The proposed BINSA legislation would amend the COINS Act of 2025 to add biotechnology— specifically pharmaceutical and biological product development—to the list of sectors subject to outbound investment screening. Among its provisions, the bill would also makes US pharmaceutical licensing deals, joint ventures, and equity investments with certain covered foreign sources, such as China, subject to Treasury Department review and explicitly covers licensing deals involving technology and intellectual property. The bipartisan proposal is under Committee consideration and review and is subject to the Congressional legislative process.   

Reference 
1. P. Van Arnum, “Oncology Drug Market: The Ups and Downs,” DCAT Value Chain Insights (June 2026).