Big Pharma's Future Growth Rests on Chinese Science? Expert Says: 'We Can't Ban Our Way Out of This'

Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. China has pulled ahead of the United States in clinical drug development and supply chain, two of six domains measured in a June Cure Innovation Index survey, even as Big Pharma signs billion-dollar deals for Chinese-developed medicines. In a statement to Benzinga, Dr.

Nathan Goodyear, an integrative medicine physician at Williams Cancer Institute who has spent time in China himself, said the scale of the shift is striking. "A decade ago, almost none of the new cancer drugs in the American pipeline came from China. Today, roughly a third of the new drugs Big Pharma licensed in came from Chinese labs," Goodyear said.

He said the security concern and the patient cost of restricting the licensing partnerships are both real. "Throttle these partnerships too abruptly and the near-term cost lands on the people with the least time to spare — cancer patients," Goodyear said. "Fewer candidates in the pipeline, longer timelines, and less price competition on some of the most promising new drugs." A single bad hire can set a startup back years.

Here are the 5 hires founders most often misjudge — and why Still Learning the Market? These 50 Must-Know Terms Can Help You Catch Up Fast The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched Operation TrailBlazer in late June.

The agency warned in its roadmap of a "critical window, measured in years, not decades, to act decisively or risk ceding military, geopolitical, and economic advantages to China." Congress introduced the Biotech Investment National Security Act the same month to screen outbound biotech investment. The move builds on the Biosecure Act, signed into law in December 2025, which bars federal agencies from procuring biotechnology services from firms linked to foreign adversaries. The concern has reached across party lines.

Kirsten Gillibrand (D), speaking at a Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing on Jun. 17, said, "One of the things that should worry us most and should immediately spark Congressional action is China's top-to-bottom efforts to dominate the next generation of biotechnology." The scale of that shift is reflected in the deal flow. Bristol Myers Squibb Inc. signed a $15.2 billion collaboration with China's Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals in May. The deal covers 13 early-stage programs in oncology, hematology and immunology.