Chinese drug makers strike a record US$136 billion in out-licensing deals in 2025

Chinese drug makers’ licensing deals more than doubled in 2025 from a year earlier to a record high, propelled by dozens of multibillion-dollar agreements between Hong Kong and mainland China-listed firms and global pharmaceutical giants.

Last year, 157 out-licensing deals worth US$135.7 billion were signed, compared with 94 transactions worth US$51.9 billion in 2024, state media reported, citing data released by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), China’s drugs regulator, last week.

Out-licensing agreements typically refer to a company granting another firm the exclusive rights to further develop, manufacture and commercialise a drug once it has entered clinical trials in humans, in return for upfront payments, milestone fees and royalties on future sales.

Among the top deals was Suzhou-based GeneQuantum’s US$13 billion contract with US-based Biohaven Pharmaceutical and South Korea’s AimedBio last January, involving antibody drug conjugates – cancer medicines that use an antibody to deliver the drug to kill tumour cells.

3SBio signed a US$6 billion licensing agreement with US multinational Pfizer in May. Photo: Handout

In May, Shenyang-based drug maker 3SBio signed a US$6 billion licensing agreement with US multinational Pfizer for its SSGJ-707 cancer drug.

In July, Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals, China’s largest drug company by market capitalisation, signed a US$12.5 billion deal with the UK’s GlaxoSmithKline for a drug called HRS-9821 to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a progressive lung condition.

South China Morning Post