China is amid a biotech boom — and increasingly on the radar for US pharma investment as the Asian country moves away from its reputation as a copycat drug producer to a developer of innovative medicines that could soon rival those of the US.
But one Big Pharma CEO says innovation out of China isn’t all bad.
“The more innovation there is in the world, wherever it is, the better it is for the patients around the world. And that’s why we need to move fast, [and] the US needs to … continue to be at the forefront,” AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot told Yahoo Finance.
The company recently penned a partnership with Shijiazhuang City-based CSPC Pharmaceuticals worth up to $5.3 billion — and that’s just one of many.
“We have done quite a number of deals in China because China’s innovation is rapidly rising,” Soriot said, adding that the company’s growth in revenue is giving it the capital it needs to invest in China. AstraZeneca reported $54 billion in 2024 revenues, up from $46 billion in 2023.
“Because we are growing, we are able to invest in the United States for the United States; we are able to invest in China for China. If innovation happens in China … you can bring this to patients in, for instance, the United States,” he said.
But that doesn’t erase the fact that the US is an important market for the UK-based pharma giant: “[The] US is the biggest innovator of biopharmaceuticals. It is really important that everything is done to protect that,” Soriot said.
Anjalee Khemlani is the senior health reporter at Yahoo Finance, covering all things pharma, insurance, provider services, digital health, PBMs, and health policy and politics. That includes GLP-1s, of course. Follow Anjalee as AnjKhem on social media platforms X, LinkedIn, and Bluesky @AnjKhem.
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