A new Intelligence Briefing from GlobalData Healthcare suggests that China is becoming an increasingly strategic component of international growth strategies as Chinese-origin assets gain global validation and licensing values rise. According to the Briefing, entitled The Two-Way Street: From Stocking the Pipeline to Acquiring Development Platforms, The Next Frontier for China Biopharma, regulatory and geopolitical complexity is simultaneously raising the stakes for companies deciding how deeply to engage.
Why this matters for healthcare and life sciences leaders?
Sarah Nightingale, Asia-Pacific Principal Consultant at GlobalData Healthcare and co-author of the Briefing, says: “China has solidified its position as the world’s second-largest developer of innovative drugs, with faster, cheaper trials. Big pharma is turning to China for the newest drug innovations, and the results are starting to speak for themselves, with massive waves of multi-billion-dollar licensing agreements from Western pharmaceutical giants.”
China’s out-licensing deals are also commanding a higher price point, with higher value and volume than ever before. In 2025, the value of China’s out-licensing deals reached $115 billion, with almost half of all US in-licensing now coming from China, according to GlobalData.
Deals such as Bristol Myers Squibb’s agreement with Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals and AstraZeneca’s deal with CSPC, the largest deal of its kind in history at up to $18.5 billion in 2026, have moved from single-asset licensing to full development-platform acquisitions, while Akeso’s plenary-session lung cancer data at ASCO marked a first for a China-originating asset on that stage.
At the same time, the regulatory picture is tightening. The Biotech Investment National Security Act (BINSA) and heightened scrutiny of China-developed drugs intended for US commercialisation are adding a further layer of complexity for deal teams, wherever they sit.
Peter Barschdorff, Vice President at GlobalData Consulting and co-author of the Intelligence Briefing, says: “China is not a side conversation in global biopharma strategy anymore. The organisations getting this right are the ones which have honestly assessed where they stand today and built a deliberate path from there. That is precisely the gap this Briefing, and the Maturity Model at its centre, is designed to close.”
A four-stage lens on China readiness
At the heart of the Intelligence Briefing is GlobalData’s China Biopharma Maturity Model, a four-stage framework helping healthcare organisations benchmark their China footprint, from limited presence to deeply integrated operations.
The model enables executives to assess their position and identify practical next steps, from licensing and acquisitions to closer monitoring of China’s rapidly evolving market.
Nightingale concludes: “Every client conversation about China ends up asking the same underlying question. It is not just about ‘what is happening,’ it is ‘where do we stand, and what should we practically do next?’ That is exactly what the Maturity Model gives leadership teams: an objective, honest reference point for a market that is of strategic interest for all.”
How healthcare organisations can harness these insights
GlobalData Healthcare gives pharma and life sciences leaders intelligence they can act on before a market moves, not after. In China, where deal terms shift by the week, and new capabilities open up faster than most Western teams can track, customers use the Intelligence Center to move from noticing a trend to acting on it: assessing whether an emerging platform is worth pursuing, benchmarking their own China operating model against peers, and building the evidence base for board-level investment decisions instead of relying on secondhand deal-announcement headlines.
For access to the Intelligence Briefing in full, download it for free below.
