U.S.-China biotech rivalry drives pharma dealmaking, policy scrutiny

China has pulled ahead of the United States in clinical drug development and supply chain, two of six domains measured in a June Cure Innovation Index survey, even as Big Pharma signs billion-dollar deals for Chinese-developed medicines. Washington Moves — But the Patient Clock Is Ticking In a statement to, Dr. Nathan Goodyear, an integrative medicine physician at Williams Cancer Institute who has spent time in China himself, said the scale of the shift is striking. “A decade ago, almost none of the new cancer drugs in the American pipeline came from China.

Today, roughly a third of the new drugs Big Pharma licensed in came from Chinese labs,” Goodyear said. He said the security concern and the patient cost of restricting the licensing partnerships are both real. “Throttle these partnerships too abruptly and the near-term cost lands on the people with the least time to spare — cancer patients,” Goodyear said. S.

Department of Health and Human Services launched Operation TrailBlazer in late June. ” Congress introduced the Biotech Investment National Security Act the same month to screen outbound biotech investment. The move builds on the Biosecure Act, signed into law in December 2025, which bars federal agencies from procuring biotechnology services from firms linked to foreign adversaries. The concern has reached across party lines.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D), speaking at a Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing on Jun. ” The Deals Tell the Story The scale of that shift is reflected in the deal flow. Bristol Myers Squibb Inc.

2 billion collaboration with China’s Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals in May. The deal covers 13 early-stage programs in oncology, hematology and immunology. It ranks among the largest cross-border biotech deals ever signed. Merck & Co.

Inc. (NYSE: MRK ) reached a $2 billion licensing agreement in March 2025 for HRS-5346, a cardiovascular drug developed entirely in China. Merck secured exclusive rights to the drug outside Greater China. Pfizer Inc.

(NYSE: PFE ) Chief International Commercial Officer Alexandre de Germay said at an industry event, “Today, 40% of all clinical studies in oncology in the world are in China. S. S. retained its edge in technology transfer, capital and commercialization and talent.

The two countries were rated equal in scientific discovery. S. S. S.

The Science Is Closing the Gap Shun Lu, a medical professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, speaking at the Global Health Summit in Hong Kong, said China was the first country to complete research on a drug resistance problem affecting roughly 15% of lung cancer patients with an EGFR gene mutation. ,” Lu said. ” The money is following the science. Last week, the Hong Kong Investment Corporation, which manages about $8 billion in assets and is wholly owned by the Hong Kong government, said it had built a diversified biotech and health care portfolio spanning both traditional Chinese and Western medicine.

The Domestic Counterpoint Some American companies have taken a different path. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. S. ” Amgen Inc.

S. production capacity. Both companies have kept most of their discovery, development and manufacturing operations in the United States. Washington is now actively encouraging the broader industry to follow a similar model.

Unlike semiconductors, biotechnology is not a single bottleneck. S. and China are competing across a multi-layered biomedical ecosystem, with each country holding advantages at different stages of the value chain. S.

depends on China, but in building a system that can withstand disruption. “The real question isn’t ‘more dependence or less,'” he said. “It’s resilience. ” He added, “We can’t ban our way out of this.

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