• Among the Asia sourced NewCos tracked by BioCentury, more than half have assets from Chinese biotechs. 
• In H1 2026, upfront payments and total deal value in China’s biotech sector climbed 87% and 66% year over year, respectively. 
• For out licensing deals, the same metrics jumped 86% and 57%. 
• In financing, Chinese biotechs raised more in the first half of 2026 than in all of 2025—a 269% surge from the year ago period.

AI and radiopharma steal the spotlight

Chinese biotech companies raised $4.64 billion in the first half of 2026, already exceeding the $4.58 billion raised in all of 2025—a 269% surge from the $1.26 billion recorded in the same period last year, according to PharmaDJ.



AI and radiopharma emerged as the two hottest sectors. The largest financing came from Earendil Labs, the overseas entity of Helixon, which closed a $787 million Series B to accelerate its AI driven discovery platform. The company had already signed a partnership with Sanofi in January 2026 valued at up to $2.56 billion to develop bispecific antibodies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases using its AI platform.



Another large AI round came from Syneron Bio, which raised $150 million in a Series B in March. Syneron also inked a strategic collaboration with AstraZeneca that same month to co discover first in class macrocyclic peptides for chronic diseases.

Radiopharma also attracted significant capital. Full Life Technologies raised $109 million in a Series D equity financing and $41 million in debt financing. New Radiomedicine Technology (NRT) closed a Series E worth over RMB 1 billion to expand its radiopharmaceutical pipeline.

BD upfronts climb 87%

Chinese biotech closed 84 deals (excluding partnerships) in the first half, roughly flat compared with 79 in H1 2025. But aggregate deal value tells a different story: total upfront payments hit $6.29 billion, up 87% year-over-year, while overall deal value reached $110.48 billion, a 66% jump.





Out-licensing deals accounted for 62, with upfront payments of $6.03 billion (up 86%) and total value of $103.75 billion (up 57%).

16 deals carried upfront payments of $100 million or more, together contributing $5.32 billion in upfront cash and $73.59 billion in total deal value—accounting for 88% and 71% of all out-licensing value, respectively.



NewCo boom

BioCentury has tracked at least 13 Western-based companies launched through the first half of 2026 with assets licensed from Asia. Among them, nine of these have assets originating from Chinese companies.



cAMPfield Therapeutics disclosed its sole pipeline prifemilast was in-licensed from Chinese biotech Newsoara only when announcing its $180 million Series A. Notably, Newsoara had itself in-licensed the asset from U.S.-based vTv Therapeutics in February 2026, then sub-licensed to cAMPfield just four months later.

Similarly, Bionyra Pharma revealed at its $165 million Series A announcement that BYN-001 came from NovaRock Biotherapeutics (the U.S. R&D arm of China’s CSPC Group) with ex Greater China global rights. The company also licensed two assets, BYN-002 and BYN-003, from China-based TrueLab Biopharmaceutical.

Serapha Bio acquired the SERP-01, an LNP-delivered, in vivo base-editing therapy for α-1 antitrypsin deficiency from Shanghai-based Yoltech Therapeutics with ex-Greater China rights. The NewCo company went public through a reverse merger with Boundless Bio and raised $230 million.

IPO and M&A

On the IPO front, nine biotech companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in H1 2026, raising a combined HK$ 10.7 billion. M&A remained subdued, with only five biotech M&A recorded in the half.