The trend: Eli Lilly, Pfizer, and Bristol Myers Squibb are among the latest pharma companies to strike licensing and partnership agreements with Chinese drugmakers.

• Lilly inked a deal worth up to nearly $4 billion this week with Haisco Pharmaceutical Group for undisclosed assets.
• Pfizer’s deal worth up to $10.5 billion with Innovent Biologics last week includes licensing and collaboration for 12 early stage cancer medicines.
• Bristol Myers Squibb reached an agreement worth up to $15.2 billion with Hengrui Pharma in early May for 13 potential candidates, including oncology, neurology, immunology, and metabolic and cardiovascular therapy areas.

Why it matters: China is becoming a leader in global drug development.

• Chinese biotech companies accounted for 55% of global licensing deals worth more than $1 billion by Q1, up from less than 10% in 2021, per Bloomberg.
• The number of licensing deals with Chinese drugmakers reached 92 in 2025, up from 64 the prior year, per Evaluate data reported by PharmaVoice.

China is directly challenging the US’ global lead in drug development. In 2015, nearly half (48%) of early stage drug candidates came from the US compared with 8% in China. By 2024, those shares had narrowed to 37% and 32%, respectively, according to a 10-year Georgetown University study published in JAMA in March.

Implications for pharma companies: China's sudden boom in creating breakthrough medicines drug candidates is intensifying competition across the global pharma industry. Because they have the deepest pockets, Big Pharma giants are snapping up these Chinese discoveries—from early lab breakthroughs to near-market drugs—to secure their future profits. This leaves smaller and mid-sized Western biotech firms caught in a squeeze, forced to compete directly against rising Chinese labs for a shrinking slice of Big Pharma’s investment cash.

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