Sourcing the Next Blockbuster: Big Pharma Uses Chinese Biotech
Nearly half of the therapeutic mRNA cancer vaccines in the global research pipeline come from Chinese companies. Chinese drugmakers completed 157 outbound licensing deals in 2025 with an aggregate potential value of approximately $135.7 billion, up from 94 deals worth $51.9 billion in 2024. Western pharmaceutical firms such as Pfizer and AstraZeneca have entered large collaborations with Chinese biotech companies.
Why it matters: This matters for the briefing's theme of technology competition, as Chinese biotech firms are moving from manufacturing into discovery and challenging Western dominance in the biotech value chain.