According to PharmaDJ data, 24 privately held Chinese drugmakers secured financing in January 2025. Among these, 22 companies disclosed funding amounts totaling $490 million. Compared to last month, the number of deals surged by 118%, while the total funding increased by 25%.
Three biotech companies—Insilico Medicine, TargetRx, and Degron Therapeutics—received investments denominated in US dollars.
Although most financings came from state-owned funds, there were notable exceptions. For instance, FOSUN Health Capital New Drug Fund, the first VC established by Shanghai-based Fosun Pharma, invested 100 million RMB in Conjustar Biologics, a peptide drug conjugate (PDC) developer jointly incubated by FOSUN and WuXi AppTec. Additionally, Qiming Venture Partners, a well-known Chinese VC, invested over 100 million RMB in Iongen Therapeutics, which is developing a small molecule Nav1.8 inhibitor for pain.
Ascentage Pharma, a cancer drug developer based in Suzhou, became the first biotech of the new year to list on NASDAQ, although its offering did not quite reach expectations.
Amid a rebound in the Hong Kong stock market, six Chinese biotechnology companies have submitted IPO applications to Hong Kong.
In January, 20 licensing deals involving Chinese drugmakers were disclosed, with a total value of $21 billion and $292 million in upfront payments—representing a month-over-month increase of 149% in deal value and a 35% decrease in upfront payments.
Only two in-licensing deals were recorded, reflecting the continued reluctance of Chinese biopharmaceutical companies to acquire foreign assets.
In contrast, Chinese biopharma companies completed 15 out-licensing deals totaling $21 billion, with $261 million in upfront payments—a month-over-month increase of 221% in deal value and a 12% decrease in upfront payments.
Notably, four Chinese drugmakers successfully out-licensed their homegrown candidates to global pharmaceutical giants
Furthermore, three of out-licensing deals were structured as NewCo deals, with Keymed completing its fourth NewCo deal since last July.
