InFocus: China – Next Biotech Catalysts May 2026
2026
China’s biotechnology sector has never been harder to ignore. Chinese-origin programmes now account for half of all large-cap pharma licensing deals with upfronts above USD 50 million — a share that has risen from under five percent just five years ago — and the deal activity shows no sign of slowing. In the first quarter of 2026 alone, announced licensing deal value reached USD 82.7 billion, with the most sought-after assets sharing a common profile: credible human data, differentiated science, and platforms that sophisticated acquirers can underwrite.
This edition of InFocus: China — Next Biotech Catalysts profiles four companies at the sharp end of that story. PersonGen BioTherapeutics is targeting a 2027 regulatory filing for its CD7-directed CAR-T therapy while simultaneously advancing one of the field’s first in vivo CAR-T candidates into clinical testing. Oricell Therapeutics is making the case that cell therapy for solid tumours has crossed from aspiration into clinical reality, with response rates in liver cancer that are reframing the conversation. Biosion has built a capital-efficient antibody engine around a discover-develop-partner discipline that its 2024 Aclaris deal puts into concrete terms. And VelaVigo is generating first-in-class multispecific and ADC programmes through a pipeline logic designed to test many hypotheses early and concentrate resources only where the biology holds up.
China’s biotechnology sector has never been harder to ignore. Chinese-origin programmes now account for half of all large-cap pharma licensing deals with upfronts above USD 50 million — a share that has risen from under five percent just five years ago — and the deal activity shows no sign of slowing. In the first quarter of 2026 alone, announced licensing deal value reached USD 82.7 billion, with the most sought-after assets sharing a common profile: credible human data, differentiated science, and platforms that sophisticated acquirers can underwrite.
This edition of InFocus: China — Next Biotech Catalysts profiles four companies at the sharp end of that story. PersonGen BioTherapeutics is targeting a 2027 regulatory filing for its CD7-directed CAR-T therapy while simultaneously advancing one of the field’s first in vivo CAR-T candidates into clinical testing. Oricell Therapeutics is making the case that cell therapy for solid tumours has crossed from aspiration into clinical reality, with response rates in liver cancer that are reframing the conversation. Biosion has built a capital-efficient antibody engine around a discover-develop-partner discipline that its 2024 Aclaris deal puts into concrete terms. And VelaVigo is generating first-in-class multispecific and ADC programmes through a pipeline logic designed to test many hypotheses early and concentrate resources only where the biology holds up.
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