Chen Bing of AstraZeneca: Large-scale BD deals for innovative drugs will still occur, and the key lies in "complementarity" | Medical Outlook 2026
After four years of "de - foaming" and "reshuffling", the healthcare track finally welcomed a turning point in 2025. A series of BD transactions, combined with the continuously rising profit expectations of innovative pharmaceutical companies and policy dividends such as the restart of the "Technology - related Enterprises Special Route" on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the fifth set of rules on the STAR Market, led the secondary market to kick off a new upward cycle.
Throughout 2025, a total of 39 healthcare companies successfully launched IPOs, raising a total of 35.9 billion yuan. At the individual stock level, the annual gains of more than a hundred companies exceeded 100%. The market values of 14 companies, including China Biopharmaceutical, Hengrui Medicine, BeiGene, Baili Tianheng, and Innovent Biologics, exceeded 100 billion yuan. The overall composition of the top 10 healthcare companies by market value also shifted from traditional comprehensive pharmaceutical companies and CXOs to innovative drug concept companies.
Next, can the IPO dividend period of the Hong Kong stocks and the STAR Market continue? How will the overseas expansion boom catalyzed by innovative drug BD change? At the beginning of 2026, 36Kr interviewed nine investors and entrepreneurs in the healthcare track and summarized the following ten trends and insights. For details, see 2026 Healthcare Outlook: Hundreds of Companies Queue up for Hong Kong Listings. Can the Healthcare Sector Create Another "Myth"? .
Meanwhile, to ensure the continuity of views, all the views of the interviewees are published separately here. In this article, Chen Bing, Vice President of International Business Development, Collaboration, and Strategic Investment at AstraZeneca, will bring readers an analysis of the future trends of innovative drug BD from the perspective of a buyer of multinational pharmaceutical companies.
The full text of Chen Bing's views is as follows:
In 2025, the trading volume of innovative drug BD in China was quite impressive, accounting for about one - third of the total global BD transactions. The outside world felt that the large - upfront - payment transactions decreased in the second half of the year, which might just be affected by regular factors such as the internal rhythm of enterprises. For example, since the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPM) is held at the beginning of each year, if there are priority projects, they are usually promoted right after the conference and not deliberately left for the second half of the year.
At the same time, some people are curious whether multinational pharmaceutical companies, after making so many transactions, have filled a part of the patent cliff and will start to turn to risk - avoidance. The patent cliff is indeed an important driving factor for multinational pharmaceutical companies to pay attention to and introduce Chinese innovative drug pipelines, and AstraZeneca itself also has relevant considerations. But ultimately, it mainly provides direction for the company's layout. What can ultimately solve the "anxiety" is whether the pipeline is significant enough (such as the emergence of molecules worth billions or tens of billions of dollars). At the same time, we must also face the reality that clinical progress may be hindered and new alternative solutions need to be found. All these need time to verify, which also means that the enthusiasm and actions of multinational pharmaceutical companies in innovative drug BD will not weaken.
Chinese pharmaceutical companies have achieved a large number of results in incremental and improved innovation relying on the "engineer dividend". Now, few people question the reliability of Chinese clinical data. In fact, epoch - making "0 to 1" new drugs in the world are rare. As long as improved molecules can effectively solve clinical pain points, they are also regarded as effective innovations globally. Years of practice and BD transactions have proven this.
Based on this, large - scale BD transactions of domestic innovative drugs will still occur in the future. The key lies in the complementarity of the pipelines and capabilities of both parties.
In the past few years, the most urgent need for multinational pharmaceutical companies was to supplement oncology pipelines and the innovation of modalities (new therapy platforms) such as ADCs and bispecific antibodies derived from them. This is precisely the track where Chinese pharmaceutical companies have invested the most and had the most intensive output in the past few years. Generally, in the oncology field, the targets are clearer, the enrolled population is relatively smaller, the efficacy measurement is clearer, and the input - output ratio is more controllable. However, currently, the oncology field is quite crowded, and the data threshold will be getting higher and higher, such as larger sample sizes, later - line treatments, and more segmented populations.
In the future, the trading trend may extend from oncology to other therapeutic areas such as autoimmune diseases and cardiovascular diseases. These are the areas where domestic enterprises have accelerated their efforts in the past two years, but they still need some time to accumulate before advancing clinical trials and conducting global transactions. Pipelines with strong complementarity and high clinical value are expected to reach cooperation at an earlier stage.
For some previously popular tracks, such as GLP - 1, only a few companies will ultimately stand out, and the determining factor is the clinical effect. Products that have not been launched on the market must find differentiated advantages: First, optimize the administration form. Many people care about the pain and inconvenience caused by injections, so there is still room for oral formulations. Second, efficacy, especially weight - loss effects and cardiovascular benefits. Third, dosing frequency. Products with longer half - lives and lower dosing frequencies have more opportunities. Fourth, long - term safety, reducing adverse reactions and rebound after drug withdrawal.
AstraZeneca has also invested a lot in research and development in the weight - loss field. We not only focus on the proportion of weight loss but also on whether we can effectively retain muscle during the weight - loss process and whether we can precisely target and improve visceral fat. AstraZeneca's recent cooperation with CSPC Pharmaceutical Group also fully demonstrates our confidence and investment in the layout of long - acting weight - loss drugs. There is still huge development space and potential for the next - generation weight - loss drugs.
In addition, as an important tool for new drug R & D, the value of AI is becoming increasingly prominent. Currently, the actual value of AI in improving the efficiency of molecular screening and shortening the time of pre - clinical research has been proven. In the clinical trial stage, AI can cut in from core dimensions such as the optimization of the entire clinical trial process, the research of new biomarkers, and the precise identification of special patient groups, effectively reducing the uncertainty of each R & D link and improving the R & D success rate.
From the perspective of drug development, AI has greater application opportunities in the expansion of new indications for listed drugs because there is enough past data for AI to learn and analyze. However, in practice, key factors such as the drug patent cycle and regulatory path still need to be comprehensively considered. In addition, it is also a necessary and clear industry effort direction to have AI lead the design of new molecules and promote their listing. Although the actual implementation effect remains to be further verified, we should have confidence in the practical application value and development potential of AI.
From the perspective of AstraZeneca's business expansion in China, we always have high hopes for the potential of the Chinese market. The core reasons are threefold: First, Chinese enterprises have become the core force of industry innovation, and some are even expected to go global. Second, the Chinese market has both cooperation opportunities and the value of competitive learning at the R & D level, which is an important reference for our industry development. Third, the Chinese market has a good foundation for business cooperation and considerable potential for transaction implementation, providing solid support for business promotion. Therefore, our future development in the Chinese market will continue to rely on the established core advantages, focus on in - depth layout in core business areas, and develop steadily.
In terms of specific business layout, in 2020, we cooperated with CICC Capital to establish the AstraZeneca CICC Healthcare Industry Fund, which focuses on both early - stage venture capital and BD opportunity exploration. The two complement each other. In the past few years, we have invested in more than 30 Chinese innovative pharmaceutical companies and reached BD transactions with more than 10 companies.
From the perspective of the principles of carrying out BD business, we will not deliberately chase a certain modality but always adhere to starting from clinical data and inferring the real value of the project. For example, for small nucleic acid drugs, we will start from the perspective of indications and clinical needs, evaluate their application potential and differentiated value in different disease areas, and ensure the scientific nature of cooperation and investment.
In addition, the impact of BD transactions of secondary - market enterprises on their stock prices needs to be specifically analyzed in combination with the actual situation of the enterprises. If an enterprise is considered by investors to have only one "flagship product", BD transactions may bring cash flow and improve operational stability, but they will also lock in the company's future development expectations and reduce the imagination space. If an enterprise has a mature technology platform or a rich product pipeline and only conducts BD for one of its products, investors will have higher expectations for the platform's potential to continuously produce new pipelines, so the future imagination space will be greater.