In March 2026, the “2025 China Biopharmaceutical Investment and Financing Blue Book” was officially launched, initiated by the Investment and Financing Service Committee of the China Pharmaceutical Enterprise Management Association, written by Yaodu Consulting, and jointly released by Caishu Technology, Guotou Investment Promotion, Sansheng Pharmaceutical and other institutions.

This authoritative report, which provides a panoramic review of industry capital trends in 2025, shows that under the triple drive of policy dividends, technological iteration, and global integration, China’s biopharmaceutical investment and financing market has completely emerged from the adjustment period, presenting distinct characteristics of total volume recovery, structural optimization, innovation focus, and accelerated overseas expansion. The comprehensive investment and financing scale for the whole year reached 94.67 billion yuan, and the industry has entered a new stage of high-quality development.

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1、 Market panorama: dual wheel drive of primary and secondary markets, capital recovery

2025 is a turning point for China’s biopharmaceutical investment and financing, with a rational return to the primary market and a strong rebound in the secondary market, forming a benign pattern of “dual wheel drive and balanced development”, completely reversing the previous situation of uneven market heat and cold.

（1） Secondary market: IPO recovery+refinancing explosion

The secondary market has become the core engine driving industry recovery, with 24 biopharmaceutical companies completing domestic and international IPOs throughout the year, raising a total of 29.277 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 129%, reversing the downward trend for two consecutive years. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange has become the main listing platform with the optimization of Chapter 18A rules (confidentiality application, rapid approval), with 20 companies listing on the Hong Kong stock market and raising 22.929 billion yuan, accounting for 78.3%; Hengrui Pharmaceutical’s Hong Kong IPO raised 8.901 billion yuan, becoming the largest case of the year. The Science and Technology Innovation Board (STAR Market) adheres to the high-quality route, with three companies raising 5.466 billion yuan. Heyuan Biotechnology and Bibeite became the first batch of approved companies after the restart of the fifth set of standards, demonstrating the support of A-shares for unprofitable innovative pharmaceutical companies.

The performance of the refinancing market is even more impressive, with 29 refinancing projects landing throughout the year, raising 33.039 billion yuan, a several fold increase from 4.237 billion yuan in 2024. WuXi AppTec leads the way with 6.926 billion yuan, while companies such as Shuodi Biotechnology and Baili Tianheng have raised over 3 billion yuan each. The funds are mainly invested in core pipelines, technology platforms, and global layout, reflecting the firm support of capital for long-term innovation of enterprises.

（2） Primary market: rational recovery, value focus becomes mainstream

The primary market presents the characteristics of “increasing number of enterprises and increasing concentration of funds”, with 343 enterprises receiving financing throughout the year and 171 disclosing a total financing amount of 32.354 billion yuan. Compared with 2024, the proportion of enterprises that have not disclosed their financing amounts has increased from 22% to 50%. A large number of small and medium-sized enterprises have completed financing but have not made it public, resulting in a significant increase in actual market activity.

The capital logic has shifted from “spreading money” to “precise investment”, with R&D companies accounting for over 83.68% of financing, with rounds concentrated in A/B/C rounds. AI+R&D platforms and cutting-edge technology companies have become the darlings of capital. The industry has bid farewell to the “race track theory”, and hardcore technology, clinical data, and commercialization potential have become the core screening criteria. High quality projects have won capital competition, while homogeneous projects continue to be cold.

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2、 Innovation as the core benchmark, diversified layout for collaborative growth

The biggest change in the investment and financing market in 2025 is the shift from “following the trend” to differentiated cultivation, focusing on unmet clinical needs and forming a pattern of “traditional track optimization, emerging track rise, and diversified target innovation”.

（1） Treatment field: Leading the way in cancer, self immunity, metabolism into a new blue ocean

In the field of oncology, it remains the core of investment and financing, with a primary market financing of 14.124 billion yuan, accounting for 43.6%, ADC、 Frontier therapies such as bispecific antibodies and CAR-T have become the focus of our layout, while companies like Yingen Biotechnology and Kelombotai have obtained large amounts of financing through differentiated pipelines.
Immune system diseases: The annual financing reached 9.55 billion yuan, an increase of 315.22% year-on-year, becoming the biggest dark horse. Demand for rheumatoid arthritis, atopic dermatitis and other diseases has exploded, and small path biology, Quanxin biology and other fields have become benchmarks.

Endocrine and metabolic diseases: Financing of 4.84 billion yuan, an increase of 29.20% year-on-year, commercialization of weight loss drugs driving obesity NASH、 Diabetes has become a hot topic, and UL UBT251 has demonstrated its global competitiveness with a US $2 billion License Out transaction.

Other fields: The financing of the nervous system (3.426 billion yuan) and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases (2.435 billion yuan) has significantly increased, and niche areas such as rare diseases and infectious diseases have attracted capital attention, with increasingly diversified track characteristics.

（2） Target layout: mature optimization+emerging exploration, accelerating original innovation

Target selection forms a clear logic of optimizing mature targets and finding breakthroughs in emerging targets. Mature targets such as MET, PD-1, VEGF are still favored, but companies use technologies such as bispecific antibodies and ADCs to achieve differentiated innovation and avoid homogeneous competition.

The exploration of emerging targets continues to increase, with 100 new targets entering the field of investment and financing throughout the year. Chinese scientists have made outstanding contributions in the discovery of targets such as GPT1 and Listerin. As of February 2026, there are 920 FIC (world’s first) pipelines under research in China, ranking second in the world and laying the foundation for breakthroughs in original innovation.

Technological platform innovation has become the underlying support, with active financing for AI pharmaceuticals, nucleic acid drugs, cell and gene therapy. Yingsi Intelligent raised RMB 2.049 billion on the Hong Kong stock market, and Jingtai Technology’s AI drug discovery platform broke the record with a License Out of USD 5.99 billion, confirming the global competitiveness of domestic technology platforms.

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3、 Going Global and Exiting: Comprehensive Upgrading of Models, Closed Loop of Industrial Value

By 2025, the globalization process of China’s biopharmaceutical industry will undergo a qualitative change. Going global will shift from single authorization to diversified collaboration, and exit channels will shift from IPO core to diversified pattern. The efficiency of capital circulation will be greatly improved.

（1） Overseas model: License Out exceeds 100 billion yuan, New Co becomes mainstream

Throughout the year, there were 158 license out transactions with a total amount of 145.9 billion US dollars (surpassing 100 billion US dollars for the first time), with a down payment of 7.5 billion US dollars, an increase of 58.7% year-on-year, reaching a new high in nearly a decade. Three projects with a single value exceeding 10 billion US dollars and 45 projects with a value exceeding 1 billion US dollars have shifted Chinese pharmaceutical companies from “asset sales” to core participants in the global innovation value chain.

Technology platform going global: Qide Pharmaceutical has authorized FGFR3 ADC and 21 target platforms for $13 billion, Xinda Biotech has authorized Takeda’s three pipelines for $11.4 billion, and Sansheng Pharmaceutical’s dual antibody has authorized Pfizer for $6.05 billion, demonstrating the global premium capability of underlying technology.
New Co model implementation: There were 16 New Co transactions throughout the year, with a total amount exceeding 16.3 billion US dollars. Xinda Biotechnology and Takeda established a joint venture, and Rongchang Biotechnology and Vor Bio were deeply bound to achieve “risk sharing and benefit sharing”, significantly enhancing the discourse power of Chinese enterprises.
Breakthrough in independent overseas expansion: BeiGene Zebutinib has a global sales revenue of 3.9 billion US dollars and a US market of 2.8 billion US dollars, becoming the first domestically produced innovative drug to truly achieve global commercialization success and verifying the feasibility of “Chinese innovation, global pricing”.
（2） Exit channels: IPO+M&A+authorization
The exit channels are fully connected, forming a pattern of “IPO as the core, mergers and acquisitions as supplements, and authorization and licensing as important alternatives”. IPO provides a clear exit window for early investors, and projects such as Baoji Pharmaceutical and Yinnuo Pharmaceutical have returns exceeding three times.

Industry mergers and acquisitions are active, with China Biopharmaceuticals acquiring Lixin Pharmaceutical for 6.822 billion yuan and Fosun Pharma acquiring Green Valley Pharmaceutical for 1.412 billion yuan, promoting resource integration and increasing industry concentration. Authorization licensing and equity repurchase form a flexible exit path, and Taizhou Bozhirui, Zhongsheng Ruichuang, and others achieve capital exit through repurchase. License Out transactions also provide a fast monetization channel for early investments.

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4、 Prospects for the Development of Biomedical Investment and Financing in China

Although the biopharmaceutical investment and financing market is expected to rebound in 2025, the high-quality development of the industry still faces multiple challenges: overseas pharmaceutical companies are intensifying their efforts in China, leading to dual competition, high-risk innovative drug research and development, and some early-stage project valuations still exist; The homogenization layout of popular tracks wastes research and development resources, and enterprises going global also need to deal with the differences in regulatory, patent, and market access barriers of various countries.

In this context, the “2025 Blue Book of China’s Biomedical Investment and Financing” clearly states that in the future, the Chinese biopharmaceutical industry will continue to upgrade around the three main themes of innovation, structure, and globalization, and present three core trends:

One is to innovate at the source. The industry will completely bid farewell to follow-up research and development, and shift towards original innovation centered around FIC (world first) and BIC (best in class). Capital will focus more on projects with breakthroughs in underlying technologies, outstanding clinical value, and stable patent barriers. The Blue Book predicts that in the next five years, the number of FIC pipelines under research in China is expected to exceed 1500, and China’s biopharmaceutical industry will accelerate from “imitation innovation” and “rapid follow-up” to “source innovation” and “global leadership”. The deep integration of basic research and industrial transformation will become the core competitiveness.

The second is the subdivision of the track. The investment and financing structure will shift from being concentrated in a few popular fields in the past to a more precise and diversified segmented layout. In addition to traditional advantageous fields such as oncology, immunology, and metabolism, cutting-edge directions such as rare diseases, cell and gene therapy, nucleic acid drugs, neurodegenerative diseases, and aging intervention will continue to be the focus of capital layout. At the same time, with the continuous upgrading of health needs, cross-border integration tracks such as precision medicine, companion diagnosis, consumer medicine, medical aesthetics and biotechnology will also rapidly rise, promoting the industry to upgrade from “large and comprehensive” to “specialized and refined”.

The third is the deepening of globalization. Chinese biopharmaceutical companies will undergo a comprehensive transformation from a single “product going global and licensing out” approach to global research and development, production, and commercialization. Deep cooperation models such as New Co and Co Co will become mainstream, and Chinese companies will no longer just be technology suppliers, but gradually participate in global R&D decision-making, benefit distribution, and rule making. In the future, enterprises with global resource integration, cross-border clinical development, overseas market operation, and international intellectual property layout capabilities will dominate the new round of competition.

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Summary:

The recovery of the biopharmaceutical investment and financing market in 2025 is an inevitable result of the resonance of policies, capital, and technology. The nearly 100 billion scale capital flow not only injects strong impetus into the development of the industry, but also confirms the hard power and development potential of China’s biopharmaceutical innovation. From the dual wheel drive of the primary and secondary markets, to the differentiated cultivation of the innovation track, and to the comprehensive upgrade of the overseas mode, the industry is moving towards a new stage of high-quality development with a brand new attitude.

Although there are challenges ahead, the trend is already clear. In the future, only by adhering to the core of original innovation, deeply cultivating the value of segmented tracks, and forging global competitiveness can we stand firm in the wave of industry. I believe that with the joint efforts of multiple parties, the Chinese biopharmaceutical industry will continue to break through the boundaries of innovation, accelerate integration into the global innovation value chain, move from “Chinese innovation” to “global leadership”, and contribute more Chinese strength to the development of the pharmaceutical industry and human health.

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