Big Pharma's Future Growth Rests on Chinese Science? Expert Says: 'We Can't Ban Our Way Out of This'

Mohd Haider

Sun, August 16, 2026 at 9:00 PM GMT+3 7 min read

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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 Benzinga, 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. "Fewer candidates in the pipeline, longer timelines, and less price competition on some of the most promising new drugs."

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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched Operation TrailBlazer in late June. The agency warned in its roadmap of a "critical window, measured in years, not decades, to act decisively or risk ceding military, geopolitical, and economic advantages to China."

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. 17, said, "One of the things that should worry us most and should immediately spark Congressional action is China's top-to-bottom efforts to dominate the next generation of biotechnology."

The Deals Tell the Story

The scale of that shift is reflected in the deal flow.

Bristol Myers Squibb Inc. signed a $15.2 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. 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. 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. The volume of innovation that is coming out of biotech in China is just amazing."

A Cure Innovation Index survey of 117 senior U.S. industry and academic leaders found the U.S. retained its edge in technology transfer, capital and commercialization and talent. The two countries were rated equal in scientific discovery.

According to the same survey, 76% of experts say the U.S. leads but China is closing fast, 85% say the U.S. lead lasts 10 years or less, and 72% agree China is improving faster than the U.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. "The drug's indication has currently only been approved in China and is about two years ahead of the U.S.," Lu said.

In antibody-drug conjugates, among the most sought-after assets in oncology dealmaking today, Lu said China is "basically at the same level as the United States."

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. said in 2025 that "over 80% of our workforce and assets are in the U.S. and all of our Food and Drug Administration-approved medicines were invented in our New York laboratories."

Amgen Inc., which operates one of the largest domestic manufacturing footprints in the biotech industry, has been expanding U.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. The U.S. and China are competing across a multi-layered biomedical ecosystem, with each country holding advantages at different stages of the value chain.

For Goodyear, the answer lies not in how much the U.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. Resilience isn't the same as immunity."

He added, "We can't ban our way out of this. The answer is targeted, not blunt."

Photo Courtesy: NiglayNik on Shutterstock.com

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