Dive Brief:
- China-based drugmaker Sino Biopharm said Wednesday it signed new deals with the U.K.’s two biggest pharma companies. Through one collaboration, AstraZeneca is licensing rights to a drug Sino is developing for lung diseases. In the other, Sino is gaining ownership in China of GSK’s marketed respiratory medicines Trelegy and Anoro.
- AstraZeneca will pay $200 million up front for rights to the Sino drug, “TQC3721,” and could add up to $1.9 billion in additional payments, as well as royalties, if certain milestones are met. Sino described the GSK deal as a “deepening” of a May collaboration involving plans to help sell in China a promising hepatitis B drug.
- The announcements come as deals between U.S. and European drugmakers and their Chinese counterparts are coming under increasing scrutiny. Nearly 100 such deals have been publicly announced since the beginning of 2025, according to BioPharma Dive data, prompting newly proposed legislation aiming to curtail these alliances and regulatory reforms to stimulate early research in the U.S.
Dive Insight:
AstraZeneca and GSK are heavily invested in respiratory medicines, and the deals announced Wednesday reflect that. AstraZeneca has also been one of the industrys’ most active dealmakers in China of late, having committed $15 billion to drug discovery, research and manufacturing there and forming multiple alliances with CSPC Pharmaceutical Group.
In licensing TQC3721, AstraZeneca is gaining rights to a so-called PDE 3/4 inhibitor, the kind of medicine Merck & Co. paid $10 billion for when it bought Verona Pharma last year. Sino has already completed a Phase 2 study in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in China, and found that a combination involving TQC3721 and standard therapies improved lung function compared to those typical drugs and a placebo.
Sino said in a statement that the deal should maximize “the potential clinical and commercial value of this potential best-in-class medicine to benefit more patients worldwide.”
The GSK deal, meanwhile, represents another way for the British drugmaker to boost sales of its medicines in China. Sino noted how the alliance will “further expand patient reach and market penetration” of Trelegy and Anoro. It’ll import, promote and distribute both products there, and expects to record all the related revenue generated.
Trelegy had global sales of 3 billion pounds, or $3.9 billion, in 2025, about 16% of which came from outside the U.S. and Europe. GSK recorded 542 million pounds, or $714 million, in Anoro sales, with 18% coming from territories other than the U.S. and Europe.
