In January 2026, 28 privately held Chinese drugmakers secured financing, with 22 disclosing total funding of $864 million. This represented a slight month-on-month decline from December 2025: the number of funded companies fell by 18%, and total financing dropped by 9%.



Capital remains plentiful for promising obesity-focused assets. The largest financing round was closed by Corxel Pharmaceuticals, which raised a substantial $287 million in Series D1 funding. The proceeds will support the global clinical development of CX11, its oral small-molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist pipeline candidate.

In January, Ribo Life Science became the first Chinese biotech to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), raising US$205 million (HK$1.6 billion) to accelerate the development of its siRNA therapeutics pipeline targeting thrombotic and cardiometabolic diseases.



Two biopharmaceutical M&A transactions were completed in January. Sino Biopharmaceutical acquired Hygieia Pharma for RMB 1.2 billion, while Kanghua Biological purchased NanoRibo Biotechnology with an initial payment of up to RMB 120 million.



Chinese drugmakers completed 18 out-licensing deals, totaling $33 billion in overall value and $3 billion in upfront payments—representing a month-on-month increase of 94% in deal value and 350% in upfront payments.






Notably, upfront payments in out-licensing deals by Chinese biotechs have been rising steadily. In January, 7 transactions had upfront payments exceeding US$100 million, most notably the deal between CSPC Pharmaceuticals and AstraZeneca, which featured an upfront payment of US$1.2 billion.



Multinational pharmaceutical companies remain keen on Chinese ADC and bispecific antibody assets. AbbVie acquired RC148, a PD-1/VEGF-targeted bispecific antibody, from RemeGen with an upfront payment of US$650 million. Roche partnered with Medilink Therapeutics to in-license YL201—a B7H3-targeted antibody-drug conjugate (ADC).