The average upfront value for a licensing deal between a Western biopharma company and its Chinese counterpart increased 230% from $52 million in 2022 to $172 million so far this year, according to data shared with Fierce Biotech from biopharma intelligence firm Evaluate.
So far in 2026, the average upfront value is 22% higher than 2025’s full-year average. If current deal value trends hold steady, 2026 will continue to see upfront values for licensing deals involving Chinese innovators grow. While the steady growth of deals over the past few years shows that investors still see value in these moves, Evaluate’s Mark Lansdell has a clear message on the current state of pulling innovations from China.
“It’s not a bargain basement anymore,” he told Fierce Biotech.
As deal flow of this type has steadily increased in recent years, the value of the contracts is changing the narrative about licensing Chinese technologies. Lansdell, who is director of asset and portfolio strategy practice lead at Evaluate, told Fierce Biotech that the number of total cross-border licensing deals of Chinese biotech products increased by 120% from 42 in 2022 to 93 in 2025. Over the same time frame, total upfront value of those arrangements increased roughly 400%, from $1.1 billion in 2022 to $5.6 billion last year.
With years of consistent demand for their assets, Chinese biotech leaders are recognizing that they can demand higher upfront and milestone-based payments for their innovation.
“China-based companies are now bringing their upfront payments into line with what you would expect to see for deals with companies headquartered elsewhere,” Lansdell said. “Western companies were getting very good deals originally, but awareness of what China’s assets could be worth to the outside world is pushing up the price.”
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Chinese biotechs have come a long way since the early 2000s, when Lansdell began working in the sector. Then, China was known as a source of out-licensed drug discovery and contract research organization work. But China’s modernized research infrastructure, increased talent retention and relatively low barriers to trial participation have allowed the country to take a big step forward in development.
Certain drug discovery sectors have seen China become the dominant player, accounting for about half of all products that make it to the clinic. For bispecific antibodies, Chinese assets account for 48% of all clinical-phase projects, according to Evaluate’s data. Lansdell says 51% of clinical trials for antibody-drug conjugates include a product from a China-based entity, while 48% of trials involving chimeric antigen receptor candidates include assets originally developed in China.
“If you have decided to stock your pipeline with one of these assets, even if you’re not specifically going shopping in China, most of the assets that you’re going to be looking at are going to have originated from a China-based company,” Lansdell says.
The ubiquity of Chinese biotech assets means that even as prices increase, investors and companies on the other side of the deals don’t have too many other places to go for new candidates. As the biotech deal flow out of China holds steady, investors still see value despite the jump in prices.
Despite geopolitical conflict involving China on issues ranging from TikTok to Taiwan, international biotech investment in the country hasn’t slowed down. Even as the Trump administration pushes to grow American industry via tariffs and constrain the reach of certain China-based entities via the Biosecure Act, licensing deal flow and deal value remain on the rise.
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In the last weeks of 2025 and beginning of 2026, several biopharma firms made a flurry of agreements with Chinese companies, including AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Servier, Sanofi, Ipsen and Shionogi. In January, AstraZeneca announced a landmark obesity licensing deal for the ex-China rights to CSPC Pharmaceutical’s weight management portfolio in a deal that could be worth $18.5 billion if all milestones are met.
Against this backdrop, U.S. biotech leaders are concerned about ceding advantages to China, Lansdell noted, but have reassured themselves that the country remains dominant in fundamental science and discovering new mechanisms of action.
Though it may be some time before Chinese pharma companies join the ranks of the top drugmakers worldwide, Lansdell says it is shortsighted to discount Chinese potential for discovering new mechanisms of action.
“I think that’s a little bit hubristic,” he says. “I don’t think there’s any reason that Chinese scientists can’t do that. They’re just further back in that development path for their industry.”
