Catenaa, Monday, June 16, 2025- US drugmakers have signed 14 deals potentially worth $18.3 billion through June to license drugs from China-based companies.
A report by Reuters said on Monday that US drugmakers are licensing molecules from China for potential new medicines at an accelerating pace, betting they can turn upfront payments of as little as $80 million into multibillion-dollar treatments.
That increased pace in signing deals in June, from just two a year earlier, is expected to continue as US drugmakers look to rebuild pipelines of future products to replace $200 billion worth of medicines that will lose patent protection by the end of the decade, analysts, investors, a banker and a drug company executive told Reuters.
In May, Pfizer spent $1.25 billion upfront for the right to license an experimental cancer drug from China’s 3SBio. That is the largest such deal this year and could be worth up to $6 billion in payments to 3SBio if the drug is successful.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in June paid $80 million upfront in a potential $2 billion deal for an experimental obesity drug from China’s Hansoh Pharmaceuticals.
The total cost of licensing agreements, including low upfront payments and subsequent larger payouts, averaged $84.8 billion in the US, compared with $31.3 billion in China over the past five years, according to GlobalData.
China’s share of global drug development is now nearly 30%, while the US share of the world’s research and development has slipped 1% to about 48%, according to pharmaceutical data provider Citeline’s report in March.
Chinese companies have licensed experimental drugs to US drugmakers that could be used for obesity, heart disease and cancer, reflecting abundant Chinese government investment in pharmaceutical and biotech research and development.
Pfizer stock was down by 0.3% on Monday, while Regeneron Pharmaceuticals was up by 1%.
