Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca will list on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, days after announcing a major initiative on the other side of the world.
Like the rest of Big Pharma, the company needs to find a balance. The company hopes to have closer ties with the United States, its largest market, and the listing is aimed at promoting investment in the country.
Meanwhile, innovation-friendly China is attracting pharmaceutical companies urgently seeking new drugs to replace blockbuster drugs whose patents will expire within the next few years. Pricing challenges in the US add to the pressure.
AstraZeneca announced on Monday, just before its U.S. listing, that it would invest billions of dollars in China and partner with Chinese biotech companies on weight-loss drugs.
The development comes at a critical time for the pharmaceutical industry, as companies increasingly seek innovations to replace the revenue from current blockbuster drugs whose patents expire in the next few years. Pricing challenges in the U.S. market, which accounts for the lion’s share of most Big Pharma’s profits, are adding to the pressure on Big Pharma.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer shake hands before a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, January 29, 2026.
Karl Cote | AFP | Getty Images
On Thursday, AstraZeneca announced plans to invest $15 billion in China by 2030 to expand both manufacturing and research and development, as Keir Starmer became the first British Prime Minister to visit China in eight years.
“These investments span the value chain, from drug discovery and clinical development to manufacturing, and are bringing Chinese innovation to the world,” the company said, noting that it is also partnering with other biotech companies in the region.
In a separate announcement on Friday, the UK’s largest company will partner with a Hong Kong-listed company. CSPC Pharmaceuticals Next, we strengthened our obesity portfolio. The collaboration agreement includes eight of CSPC’s preclinical and early-stage programs, including once-monthly injectables. Following the announcement, CSP stock fell 10.2%.
An AstraZeneca spokesperson confirmed to CNBC on Friday that AstraZeneca will pay CSPC $1.2 billion upfront and an additional $17.3 billion if certain regulatory, research and commercial milestones are met. The company declined further comment on its geographic priorities.
The announcement came just before AstraZeneca’s shares were listed on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, as well as a recently announced $50 billion investment in the U.S. to be exempted from U.S. drug tariffs.
“What this tells us is that the U.S. and China are going to be the two most important regions for the company for some time to come,” Camilla Oxhamle, portfolio manager at Lenman & Partners, told CNBC in an email.
AstraZeneca balance adjustment
The U.S. is by far AstraZeneca’s biggest market, and the company announced last year that it wanted a more global investor base and would exit its American Depositary Shares program to pursue a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange, while also maintaining listings in London and Stockholm.
“It’s the largest pharmaceutical company[in China]and when they decide to list in the U.S., there’s always going to be questions about their commitment to China in some people’s minds and the fact that there was some research done last year,” Rajesh Kumar, head of European life sciences and healthcare equity research at HSBC, told CNBC. In 2025, AstraZeneca faced multiple investigations by Chinese regulators regarding unpaid import duties.
“So they are effectively communicating very clearly that they are contributing to China by this action,” Kumar added.
China is also AstraZeneca’s second-largest market. Oxhama, whose fund has a significant long position in Astra shares, added that the Chinese market “will continue to grow in importance over time, both in terms of revenue and research.”
And Astra isn’t the only pharmaceutical company looking to China for new and innovative assets. London-listed GSK signed a deal with Hengrui Pharma in July worth up to $12 billion, most of which was tied to the achievement of certain development and commercial milestones.
China’s hot biotech scene
The number of licensing deals between big pharmaceutical companies and Chinese biotech companies, such as AstraZeneca and CSPC, has increased rapidly in recent years, with 57 such deals expected by 2025, according to data from Biopharma Dive.
“These deals demonstrate the success of China’s long-standing efforts to elevate the biopharmaceutical value chain from a fast follower to a differentiated asset that can compete globally,” PitchBook analysts said in a report last month.
China’s emergence as a leader in preclinical and early-stage development comes as biotech funding in other countries has taken a hit in recent years, helped by the speed at which the country can conduct early human clinical trials. A reverse brain drain, with Chinese scientists returning to the country, is also helping the country’s biotechnology sector, Kumar said.
“China’s biopharmaceutical sector has realigned around next-generation therapeutics combined with efficient clinical trial infrastructure to de-risk these assets,” Pitchbook analysts said.
“Multinational and mid-cap biopharmaceutical companies are accelerating their sourcing of assets from China, from headline mega deals to small licensing deals. Importantly, this activity is skewed toward complex biologics rather than traditional therapies.”
A June report from Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs said that “China has the most pressing opportunity to overtake the United States in biotechnology” and suggested that this could “rapidly shift the global balance of power.”
However, in the second half of 2025, US biotech funding increased significantly.
“There will always be innovation coming from both regions,” Kumar said. “The world has changed…China was catching up with the US, but the US will accelerate again.”
– CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng contributed to this report
