Experts from Pinsent Masons have pointed out that as major global pharmaceutical brands increasingly turn to China to fill gaps in their R&D pipelines, European companies face the risk of being left behind.

China's pharmaceutical industry ranks second in the world, trailing only the United States, and its revenue is expected to exceed $2 trillion by 2030. In contrast, Europe's revenue is projected to reach $688 million over the same period, while the UK's revenue is expected to be just over $90 million.

At an event co-hosted by Pinsent Masons and Han Kun Law Offices, Alistair Booth, a life sciences transactions expert at Pinsent Masons, stated: "Global big pharma companies are turning to China to fill R&D pipeline gaps, and European companies risk being left behind."

"Driven by the global patent cliff expiration, the transaction value between the top 20 multinational corporations and Chinese companies increased to $6.92 billion by 2025, an increase of 40%," he added.

"A recent series of major deals, such as the collaborations between Takeda and Innovent Biologics, AstraZeneca and CSPC Pharmaceutical Group, GSK and Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine, and Novo Nordisk and United Laboratories, show that European and UK pharmaceutical companies are already actively establishing partnerships, but the competition for Chinese innovation resources is intensifying."

By 2030, patents for high-revenue drugs worth $236 billion will expire successively, creating opportunities for other companies to produce similar and cheaper generics, which are expected to generate at least $173.9 billion in annual sales by 2032.

Kiah York, an intellectual property transactions expert at Pinsent Masons, said: "China is no longer merely a commercialization market; it has now become a vital source of global innovation."

"Based on 2025 data, China-related deals account for approximately 50% of the total global pharmaceutical transaction value, the vast majority of which is driven by out-licensing deals for early-stage assets."

"The R&D capabilities of the Chinese biotech industry are improving rapidly, with the proportion of first-in-class new drug innovation exceeding 30%, and early-stage projects accounting for 68% of all out-licensing deals."

So-called "licensing-out" deals refer to the act of a company granting the rights to manufacture, market, or develop a product to another party. Throughout 2025, Chinese biopharmaceutical companies signed a total of 157 such deals with a total value of $135.7 billion, more than double the total value of similar deals in 2024.