China Healthcare Global China Summit Takeaways (Day 2): AI applications in early and late drug development; China pharma panel

Research evidence excerpt

China Healthcare Global China Summit Takeaways (Day 2): AI applications in early and late drug development; China pharma panel

nd-line non-squamous NSCLC Ph3 design are

the two near-term catalysts. In addition, Olin plans to launch at least one Ph3 trial of

IBI324 in 2H26. Takeda’s new CEO visited Innovent earlier this year, suggesting Takeda

could continue to value the importance of IBI363 partnership.

• Transformation of China Pharma panel with Hengrui and GeneScience: All in

innovation and globalization. Chinese biotech and pharma’s out-licensing is

accelerating faster than expected, with BD deal volume on pace to double in 2026 versus

2025, and the quality of that expansion is also improving. Companies are no longer

simply selling early-stage assets for upfront cash, but they are increasingly co-developing

products with overseas partners, retaining meaningful economics, and using the

partnerships to absorb commercial and regulatory know-how they don’t yet have

internally. On R&D, Hengrui is converging on two practical filters that have replaced the

first-in-class versus best-in-class debate: does the drug address a genuine unmet need,

and is it clearly better than what already exists. GeneScience shows a trend toward

targeting disease areas that have seen no meaningful therapeutic progress in decades,

moving away from the crowded oncology and immunology targets. On BD, the emerging

industry consensus is that licensing out early-stage assets is a practical way to monetize

early-stage assets, given that most early-stage drug candidates fail. MNC’s market access

experience and regulatory expertise also accelerate the path to overseas approval and

maximize asset value. Partner selection is increasingly sophisticated, with companies