China Healthcare: Trip Takeaways from Pharma Companies

Research evidence excerpt

China Healthcare: Trip Takeaways from Pharma Companies

Idea

May 18, 2026 01:32 AM GMT

Morgan Stanley Asia Limited+MChina Healthcare | Asia Pacific Alexis Yan, CFA

Equity Analyst

Trip Takeaways from Pharma Alexis.Yan@morganstanley.comClinton Ng +852 2239-7953

Clinton.Ng@morganstanley.com +852 2848-6659

Companies

China Healthcare

Asia Pacific

We met with Hengrui, Hansoh and Henlius (a Fosun Pharma Industry View Attractive

subsidiary) during our China healthcare trip. Common topics

included potential impacts from the new sales rep management

guidelines, ASCO highlights and other key pipeline updates, and

BD outlook. Below we offer our key takeaways.

Key Takeaways

Feedback on the new sales rep policies appear mixed. Innovative drugs with clear

clinical value and pharma with established systems indicates limited impact.

… but some lower-tier hospitals may take time to adjust to the new sales rep

registration and appointment requirements, affecting sales of some legacy drugs.

On BD, comments are largely consistent, with ongoing discussions between China

and global biopharma underway, supporting unchanged or more optimistic BD

target.

ASCO is a near-term catalyst, with most abstract release on May 21 and LBAs

through May 29-Jun 2, followed by the ADA Conference in June 5-8.

The proposed ban of using China data in supporting US IND filings should not

affect BD outlook in most cases under versatile global development strategies.

Hengrui (1276.HK/600276.SS)

BMS deal (note) and BD outlook: Management framed the BMS collaboration as

evidence of increasing global recognition for the breadth and quality of China

biopharma's innovative pipeline, including for next-gen early-stage assets. They

noted that discussions expanded materially beyond the initial specific assets to