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Pharma rushes to license Chinese clinical candidates to avoid the pitfalls of a looming patent cliff. Credit: DesignRage/Shutterstock.com

Out-licensing of clinical candidates from China has increased dramatically over the last five years, as the world’s pharma companies shore up their pipelines in anticipation of an approaching patent cliff for several blockbusters.

A recent GlobalData report describes the rise in licensing deals between Chinese biotechs and foreign pharma during 2025, noting that six of the 10 largest deals since 2020 have taken place in just the first nine months of this year.

AstraZeneca leads the pack of developers acquiring rights to Chinese drugs, being responsible for the most out-licensing deals since 2020. The company has invested heavily in collaborations with Chinese companies, signing a deal worth $5.2bn in June 2025 to co-develop chronic disease drug candidates with Hebei-based CSPC Pharmaceuticals.

China now accounts for one fifth of all drugs in development, as per another GlobalData report. The country was the origin of 28% of the world’s licensed drugs in 2024 in deals valued at a collective $41.5bn, based on GlobalData’s Pharmaceutical Intelligence Centre, up 66% from 2023.

Eli Lilly’s Omvoh (mirikizumab-mrkz) has shown continued benefit after four years in a Phase III open-label extension trial in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC).

Patients treated with the company’s interleukin-23p19 (IL-23p19) inhibitor have achieved sustained, long-term benefit, including those who had previously failed a biologic or advanced therapy.

In the Phase III LUCENT-3 trial, among those who achieved clinical remission with Omvoh at one year, 78% achieved corticosteroid-free clinical remission and 78% sustained long-term clinical remission.

Endoscopic remission was also retained in 81% of patients, and 90% achieved remission on the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (IBDQ). 93% achieved a 3 or more-point reduction on the Urgency Numeric Rating Scale (UNRS), and 74% achieved an UNRS of 0 or 1, a patient evaluated scale from 0 to 10 that measures bowel urgency severity.

A new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) has highlighted the global healthcare burden of neurological disorders.

In the latest ‘Global status report on neurology’, the government organisation estimated that more than 40% of the global population is impacted by at least one neurological disorder, making the category the most common cause of ill health or disability worldwide.

According to the WHO, conditions under the neurology umbrella account for 11 million deaths each year. This is despite the preventable nature of many of the diseases in this category.

Alzheimer’s disease is still a huge burden on patients and healthcare systems alike, with the WHO report revealing that it received the most amount of research funding of all the neurological disorders in 2023.

After a year in the shadows, the controversial BIOSECURE Act could make a return following an endorsement of a revised iteration by both chambers of Congress.

The bipartisan amendment, submitted by Bill Hagert and Gary Peters, Republican and Democratic senators respectively, was passed through the Senate and House versions of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2026 (NDAA).

“The next step is for the House of Representatives and Senate to reconcile their versions of the NDAA. We do expect to see BIOSECURE 2.0 (as we are calling it) in the final,” said law firm Goodwin in response to the news.

The BIOSECURE Act, a section formally “Prohibition on Contracting with certain Biotechnology providers”, is designed to limit Chinese biotechs and manufacturers from accessing US funding and collaborating with US pharma companies using federal funding.

UK-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has signed a drug pricing deal with the US government, becoming the second industry titan to do so this month.

After convening with President Donald Trump at the White House, the company’s CEO, Pascal Soriot, shook hands with the president on drug price reductions of up to 80% within its chronic disease portfolio.

The agreement will see AstraZeneca provide three branded respiratory medications to cash-paying patients at a concession through the US government’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) platform, TrumpRx.gov, which is set to launch in January 2026.

Medications tied to the deal include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) meds Bevespi Aerosphere (glycopyrrolate/formoterol fumarate) and Breztri Aerosphere (budesonide/glycopyrrolate/formoterol fumarate).