China's Pharma Market Sees Record-Breaking February with Over $20 Billion in Outbound Licensing Deals

　　【Pharmaceutical Network Industry Dynamics】In February 2026, according to incomplete statistics, China's pharmaceutical market signed a total of 25 asset licensing and cooperation agreements, including 15 outbound transactions, 5 inbound transactions, and 5 domestic transactions.
 

Among the overseas deals, several transactions exceeded a total value of 1 billion US dollars. For instance, on February 8, Innovent Bio and Eli Lilly reached a global research and development collaboration and licensing agreement for innovative drugs in the field of oncology and immunology. According to the cooperation agreement, Innovent Bio will lead the R&D work related to the projects from drug discovery to the validation of clinical concepts in China (completion of Phase II clinical trials), while Eli Lilly will obtain the exclusive global development and commercialization license for these projects outside of Greater China. The agreement stipulates that Innovent Bio will receive a total payment of 8.85 billion US dollars (approximately 61.3 billion RMB), including an upfront payment of 350 million US dollars and milestone payments of 8.5 billion US dollars.
 

On February 11, Ribo Life Science and Madrigal signed an exclusive global licensing agreement to jointly develop six siRNA therapies targeting Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatohepatitis (MASH) based on Ribo Life Science's liver-targeting RiboGalSTAR platform. Ribo Life Science received $60 million as an upfront payment and is eligible for up to $4.4 billion in milestone payments, as well as royalties on global net sales.
 

On February 23, Frontier Biotech signed an exclusive licensing agreement with GSK, granting the latter global exclusive rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize two of its small interfering RNA (siRNA) pipeline products. According to the agreement, Frontier Biotech will receive a $40 million upfront payment, a $13 million near-term milestone payment, and up to $950 million in success-based development, regulatory, and commercialization milestone payments across the two projects, bringing the total transaction value to over $1 billion.
 

On February 23, Harbour BioMed announced that it had entered into a licensing agreement and equity partnership with Solstice Oncology, granting the latter exclusive development and commercialization rights for the clinical-stage candidate product HBM4003 outside of Greater China. Under the terms of the agreement, Harbour BioMed is eligible to receive an upfront consideration valued at over US$105 million, as well as shares in Solstice Oncology worth more than US$50 million issued and allotted to Harbour BioMed. Additionally, based on the achievement of specific future milestones, Harbour BioMed is further eligible to receive approximately US$1.1 billion in development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments, along with tiered royalties based on net sales outside of Greater China.
 

In terms of引进, Chinese pharmaceutical companies have also secured deals exceeding $1 billion. On February 5, Everest Medicines announced that it had signed an exclusive commercialization licensing agreement with Micot, granting it exclusive commercial rights to MT1013, a dual-target peptide new drug independently developed by Micot, in China and the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan). According to the agreement, Everest Medicines will pay an upfront payment of 200 million yuan, along with potential regulatory and commercial milestone payments not exceeding 1.04 billion yuan.
 

Industry analysts believe that the Chinese pharmaceutical market has seen a continued surge in asset licensing and cooperation since the beginning of 2026, reflecting a profound shift in China's pharmaceutical industry from "following innovation" to "original innovation," and from "product output" to "capability output." This trend also marks an increasing recognition of Chinese companies' capabilities in target discovery, molecular design, and preclinical research efficiency. In the future, China's innovative drug industry will achieve multiple technological breakthroughs, and Chinese innovative drugs will accelerate their integration into the global system.
 

　　Disclaimer: In any case, the information or opinions expressed in this article do not constitute investment advice to any person.