AstraZeneca is quickly putting its pledge to invest further into China’s biotechnology industry into action, striking a potentially $18 billion deal with CSPC Pharmaceutical Group to license up to eight experimental medications for obesity and diabetes.
The wide-ranging alliance announced Friday involves multiple “next-generation” weight loss treatments. They’ll initially focus on four, all of which were designed with the help of AI tools and technology from CSPC that’s meant to support extended dosing. The first is a type of dual-acting weight loss shot that works similarly to Eli Lilly’s fast-selling Zepbound and is headed for Phase 1 testing. The other three have “differing mechanisms” that should provide “extended benefits” for people with obesity and related conditions, AstraZeneca said.
AstraZeneca and CSPC have agreed to work on four other unspecified prospects. The British drugmaker can also use CSPC’s sustained-release technology — which enables once-monthly or longer dosing intervals — on other drugs in its portfolio. AstraZeneca will have most rights, outside of China, to all of the programs emerging from the work.
CSPC is receiving $1.2 billion in upfront cash to start the deal. It’s also eligible for up to $3.5 billion in future payouts tied to research and development milestones and another $13.8 billion in payouts, as well as royalties, if the licensed programs hit certain sales targets.
CSPC’s technology has the potential “to transform the treatment of obesity, helping to address adherence and convenience as key barriers to long-term therapeutic success,” said Sharon Barr, AstraZeneca’s executive vice president and head of biopharmaceuticals R&D, in a statement.
The alliance was announced just as AstraZeneca agreed to invest $15 billion in China through 2030. It also extends a surge in drug licensing deals between Western biopharmaceutical companies and their China-based counterparts. These collaborations enable drug companies to tap into a vast ecosystem of biotechs quickly developing therapies that, in many cases, are designed to improve upon drugs in development or on the market. More than 60 such deals were announced last year and at least 10 already have followed in January, according to data compiled by BioPharma Dive.
AstraZeneca’s deal with CSPC is the largest in scope since the start of 2025, data show. The potentially $18.5 billion in total payouts far surpasses the $12.5 billion alliance between Hengrui Pharma and GSK, while the upfront cash involved is only marginally short of what was seen in 2025 deals struck by Pfizer and Takeda.
Still, the alliance hands AstraZeneca access to an entire portfolio of weight loss medications at a lower cost than it might have paid through an acquisition. Pfizer, for instance, paid $10 billion to acquire obesity drug developer Metsera last year. Multiple other U.S.-based biotechs working in the field are worth several billions of dollars.
Like many of its peers, AstraZeneca aims to break into an ultra-lucrative market that’s led by Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy. Prior to Friday’s deal, the company had formed collaborations with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and China-based biotech Eccogene, and acquired startup SixPeaks Bio. It has three drugs for obesity and weight management in Phase 2 testing. One is a pill, another is a weekly injectable medicine targeting the gut hormone amylin, and a third is a different type of dual-acting shot.
But AstraZeneca is also well behind in a crowded competition to improve upon Zepbound and Wegovy. Novo just brought an oral form of Wegovy to market, and Lilly has a pill that could join it within weeks. Both companies have a variety of additional weight loss medications in their portfolios, and an array of pharmas and biotechs have programs in advanced testing, too.
AstraZeneca has been working with CSPC since 2024, when it licensed an oral, lipid-lowering therapy. The two formed a broader deal in June to discover oral medications for immunological diseases and other chronic conditions.
Last year, CSPC also licensed an oral weight loss pill to Madrigal Pharmaceuticals and a cancer medicine to Radiance Biopharma.
