On Jan. 8, 2026, 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.

International pharmaceutical giants, including AstraZeneca, Merck, Roche, Takeda and Bristol Myers Squibb, have been racing to strike deals with Chinese drug developers as they confront looming “patent cliffs” before 2030 that put about US$171 billion of large-cap biopharma companies’ 2025 revenue at risk.

Meanwhile, analysts expect global appetite for Chinese early-stage drug assets to remain robust this year. Goldman Sachs said in a research note last month that Chinese biopharmaceutical companies were becoming increasingly prominent in the development of new therapies and “they are capturing a growing share of global drug licensing deals”.

The Biosecure Act, which US President Donald Trump signed in December, restricts contracts with Chinese biotech firms deemed national security risks. It also aims to curb US investment in Chinese technologies with potential military applications.