Henry Li’s BioRoundup is a weekly analytical roundup that tracks where power, capital and science are actually moving in the global life-sciences ecosystem.
Rather than simply reporting news headlines, Li curates developments from across deals, policy, industry strategy and market structure, synthesising stories from boardrooms, governments, labs and regulatory bodies into an integrated narrative. He highlights major deals, policy shifts, strategic incentives and structural trends, and then offers concise “how to read it” insights that explain why these developments matter to investors, biotech leaders, policymakers and innovation ecosystems. His lens bridges science, economics and geopolitics, showing not just what happened, but what it signals about the future direction of the sector.
In this third instalment, Henry Li’s BioRoundup examines how China is formalising scale in its life-sciences system – through reimbursement design, outbound dealmaking, regulatory consolidation and data-driven insurance infrastructure. The stories here show a market moving beyond experimentation toward codified national frameworks that shape how innovation is paid for, partnered and governed.
Across reimbursement, China is building a deliberate two-tier structure that separates core social insurance from commercial funding for the most expensive innovative drugs. In parallel, outbound licensing has reached volumes that force global pharma to treat Chinese pipelines as structurally embedded in international R&D planning rather than opportunistic add-ons. The export of GLP-1 assets, meanwhile, underscores how metabolic disease has become a genuinely two-way strategic market, with IP, capital and manufacturing chains crossing political boundaries.
Overlaying all of this is a tightening national rulebook for the most sensitive technologies – cell therapy, gene editing and in vivo interventions – alongside efforts to standardise “smart insurance” data and payment rails. Together, these developments show a system that is reducing ambiguity by design. For companies, the opportunity in China is increasingly large and legible, but also more tightly governed; success depends less on navigating local exceptions and more on aligning with nationally defined pathways for access, trials and payment.
China – Directories, deals and GLP-1 exports
1) NRDL update and first “innovative drug” commercial insurance directory
China’s National Healthcare Security Administration has published the 2025 National Reimbursement Drug List (NRDL, 国家医保药品目录), adding 114 medicines, with oncology, rare diseases and chronic conditions heavily represented. At the same time, regulators have launched a new Commercial Health Insurance Innovative Drug List (商业健康保险创新药品清单) covering 19 high-cost medicines – including all five approved CAR-T therapies and several Alzheimer’s treatments – designed to be funded through commercial insurance products rather than the core social-insurance fund.
How to read it: Reimbursement is turning into a deliberate two-layer system. NRDL status still decides what the state pays for directly, but the commercial list creates a structured lane for very expensive innovative drugs to be used without blowing up the main fund. For companies, access strategy now has two parallel tracks – national basic insurance and tightly designed commercial pilots – both of which matter for launch, pricing and evidence plans in ageing-related conditions like Alzheimer’s.
- https://trial.medpath.com/news/21518b6449708245/china-s-2025-national-drug-list-adds-114-medicines-with-historic-commercial-insurance-breakthrough
- https://en.people.cn/n3/2025/1209/c90000-20399963.html
2) Innovative-drug deals on track to break 100 billion dollars in 2025
Industry tallies suggest Chinese pharma companies completed 103 outbound licence deals (对外许可 / 出海合作) in the first three quarters of 2025, with a combined headline value of about 92 billion dollars, and full-year totals expected to “easily” pass 100 billion dollars. A notable recent example is Sichuan Kelun Biotech’s cross-licensing agreement with US-based Crescent Biopharma, covering an oncology asset SKB105 and a reciprocal Greater China licence for Crescent’s CR-001.
How to read it: Out-licensing has clearly become a system, not just a run of success stories. Triple-digit billion totals guarantee Chinese assets a permanent place in global pipeline reviews, and cross-licence structures suggest Chinese companies want to stay in the game outside their home market rather than cashing out completely. The messy bit is underneath the headline numbers: a noticeable slice of earlier deals has since been terminated or restructured as trials disappoint or portfolios are reprioritised. For multinationals, this combination of scale and churn is both opportunity and execution risk.
- https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2025-12-10/doc-inhaicsy1773519.shtml
- https://www.yicai.com/news/102943787.html
3) Fosun’s YaoPharma licenses oral GLP-1 to Pfizer
YaoPharma, a subsidiary of Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical, has granted Pfizer exclusive global rights (outside certain Asian markets) to YP05002, an oral GLP-1 receptor agonist (口服GLP-1受体激动剂) for obesity and type 2 diabetes. YaoPharma will complete the current phase 1 trial in Australia; Pfizer will then take over development and commercialisation. The deal includes a 150 million dollar upfront payment and up to 1.935 billion dollars in milestones, plus tiered royalties.
How to read it: The obesity stack is now genuinely two-way. Western firms are no longer just importing GLP-1s into China; Chinese companies are exporting novel incretin candidates into US and European pipelines. For Pfizer, this diversifies obesity bets after a bruising experience with its own oral GLP-1 programme. For policymakers, GLP-1s now live in the same conversation as semiconductors and APIs: strategically important, globally entangled, and politically sensitive when key assets sit in cross-border IP and manufacturing chains.
- https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251209536063/en/Pfizer-Enters-into-Exclusive-Collaboration-and-License-Agreement-with-YaoPharma
- https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/pfizer-partners-with-yaopharma-weight-management-treatment-2025-12-09/
4) New national rulebook for cell and gene therapies and in vivo editing
China’s State Council has issued the Regulations on the Administration of Clinical Study and Clinical Translational Application of New Biomedical Technologies (新型生物医药技术管理条例), a national framework for cutting-edge interventions such as stem-cell therapies, CAR-T and TCR-T cell therapies, gene editing – including in vivo gene editing (体内基因编辑) – and other advanced platforms. The regulation, which takes effect on 1 May 2026, sets out who can sponsor studies, which hospitals can run them, how filing and approvals work, and how patients are protected.
How to read it: China is creating a single national gate for the most sensitive parts of biotech. The new rules make it easier to file and run studies if you have a Chinese legal entity and top-tier hospital partners, but they also centralise control in the National Health Commission, which can pause or ban applications. For global boards, the message is simple: if you want to run serious cell, gene or in vivo programmes in China, this regulation is now the main map – and it hard-wires Beijing’s risk tolerances into your trial and partnership design.
- https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=05efd15c-aa98-47bd-a50a-dd0e5b3a5571
- https://chinameddevice.com/china-new-biomedical-technologies/
- https://www.pacificbridgemedical.com/news-brief/china-introduces-new-rules-to-regulate-cutting-edge-biomedical-technologies/
5) Smart insurance infrastructure as the next layer of plumbing
Following a national “smart health insurance” (智慧医保) innovation drive, regulators are backing efforts to standardise how data and payments flow between basic insurance, commercial insurers and providers in pilot areas such as Shanghai’s Zhangjiang hub. The aim is to create a shared clearing and settlement backbone (结算平台) for new payment models, including those used to fund high-cost innovative drugs in the commercial directory.
How to read it: Payment infrastructure is quietly catching up with drug innovation. Instead of dozens of bespoke pilots, China is trying to put “smart insurance” experiments on common rails. For companies, that means access discussions will sit on top of shared data and settlement standards rather than one-off spreadsheets – which is good for scale, but also means less room for creative exceptions. For foreign observers, it is another reminder that China treats data standards and financial plumbing as policy levers, not afterthoughts.
- https://english.shanghai.gov.cn/en-Latest-WhatsNew/20250804/faf12ccf3dc54f86b113808903172152.html
- https://www.munichre-foundation.org/en/Inclusive_insurance/Learning_Sessions/2025ChinaInclusiveInsuranceSymposium.html
Shared with permission from the author Henry Li – Senior Policy Advisor, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change | LinkedIn: Profile
