Innovative drugs coming out of China’s biotech firms have become increasingly popular licensing targets among multinational corporations (MNCs) in recent years, leading to what some are calling a “DeepSeek moment”<\/a> for the local industry.<\/p>\n Da Liu, managing director of CR-CP Life Science Fund. Photo: Handout alt=Da Liu, managing director of CR-CP Life Science Fund. Photo: Handout><\/p>\n Multinationals have turned their attention to Chinese biotech companies and assets because of their “cost efficiencies, accelerated timelines and promising quality”, US investment bank Jefferies said<\/a> in a report last month.<\/p>\n Of the top 10 global drug deals by transaction volume in the first half of the year, seven involved licensing from Chinese firms, according to a July report by data provider PharmCube.<\/p>\n However, China was still in the early stages of innovative life sciences, and domestic companies faced “a torturous pathway ahead” in becoming global leaders, Liu wrote in his book, Life Sciences Unicorns: From a China Investment Perspective, published in 2023.<\/p>\n “China won’t be able to produce [biopharmaceutical] MNCs for [another] 10 to 20 years,” Liu said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Western biopharmaceutical MNCs came about mostly through mergers and acquisitions, benefiting from increased globalisation in recent decades, according to Liu. The current geopolitical environment has hampered cross-border merger efforts for Chinese companies, he said.<\/p>\n Story Continues <\/p>\n For Chinese biotech firms to become large multinational players in the industry, they would need to have a dominant position in at least one or two fields, which has become increasingly difficult amid intensifying competition, according to Liu.<\/p>\n As his next project after the eight-year CR-CP Life Science Fund matures, Liu wants to set up an investment fund in Hong Kong that would also focus on life sciences.<\/p>\n “Hong Kong serves as a connecting point between China and Southeast Asia, and many from the US and Europe still choose Hong Kong as their first stop for business,” Liu said. “It still holds an advantage. I hope to leverage Hong Kong to build this two-way bridge.”<\/p>\n This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP)<\/a>, the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app<\/a> or visit the SCMP’s Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a> pages. Copyright \u00a9 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n Copyright (c) 2025. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n