In recent years, China has positioned itself as a key hub for innovative medicines development, with the country having flourished from its roots in active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing to become a go-to partner for novel drug assets.
China’s ballooning success in this space is evidenced by its forging of several notable deals with Western pharma companies. Recently, German pharma giant Boehringer Ingelheim committed up to $7.4bn to Sino Biopharma in an oncology deal to secure the rights to a range of preclinical-stage assets.
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However, with China’s prevalence continuing to grow on the global stage, some European industry players are concerned about being outcompeted, as biotechs continue to contend with fragmented and slow drug regulation, as well as challenges around securing financing in Europe.
Others, however, including some speakers at the 2026 BIO-Europe congress, held in Cologne, Germany between 9 and 11 November, were quick to point out the opportunity that China’s growing prevalence could present Europe.
“I see China as being a catalyst for the Europeans,” said Jeremy Levin, executive chair of Ovid Therapeutics, in a panel session on day one. “It’s making us all wake up; if we stay where we are and don’t do anything, and we don’t develop more quickly, protect our intellectual property and speed up access to clinical studies, we will be run off the road by the fantastic skills and competences in China,” he warned.
Chair of NanoSyrinx, LabGenius and Avantium NV, Edwin Moses, echoed Levin’s sentiments, adding that the innovation wave coming out of China should encourage Europe to approach getting drugs to patients in “new and creative ways”.
Levin and Moses also point to the potential of recent US policies like the Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security (COINS) Act, which could impact the ability of US companies to interact and work with some suppliers in China. With this federal statute looking to come into play, Levin questions if this could open more doors for Europe to become the preferred location for scientific and commercial collaboration between China and Western biotech.
In a previous conversation with Pharmaceutical Technology’s sister publication, Clinical Trials Arena, experts mentioned that making Europe more competitive on a global scale will require the unification of fragmented systems, as well as speeding up the regulatory process.
Making biotech a strategic asset in Europe
Though many talk about China’s role in life sciences in more recent terms, Levin noted that the Chinese government has been building out the country’s capabilities for nearly a quarter of a century – first in APIs, then in testing, biosimilars, and eventually novel medicines. During this time, China has also streamlined its regulatory system, while attracting back the talent base that previously left for hubs like the US and Europe.
This, Levin says, highlights China’s long-term commitment to making biotech a “strategic priority” – something he cannot currently see to the same extent in Europe. This lack of commitment to early-stage innovation, he says, is especially pertinent in the world of venture capital (VC), which is now commonly vying for deals around late-stage, de-risked assets.
With this change happening in real time, Levin warns that the early-stage biotech innovation landscape in Europe, which pharma often relies on, could experience significant erosion.
Meanwhile, Matthias Alder, CEO at SRTD Biotech, painted a more positive picture for the future of early-stage companies in another panel session, noting that the “pendulum is swinging back” towards early-stage deals due – in part – to the costs linked to such agreements.
“Doing an early-stage deal means having the asset in hand, which can be de-risked to their own liking,” Alder commented, adding that he is certainly seeing this trend in his domain, the RNA space. He raises this point a little after Moderna and MSD’s intismeran autogene made a splash by becoming the first to provide late-stage validation for the mRNA cancer vaccine approach.
“We’ve seen really large acquisitions in our space at late preclinical or first patient dosed-type companies for billion-plus in terms of return to shareholders, and from my perspective that’s highly encouraging,”
“I would say, if you have a differentiated platform, you can even get a little earlier than that,” he concluded.
