Bristol Myers Squibb Signs $15.2 Billion Drug Deal with China’s Hengrui as Patent Cliff Looms
May 12, 2026 – 9:22 pm
TL;DR:
Bristol Myers Squibb has signed a deal worth up to $15.2 billion with Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine, China’s largest pharmaceutical company by market capitalisation. The agreement covers 13 early-stage drug programmes across oncology, haematology, and immunology. None of the drugs have entered human clinical trials.
The Deal:
BMS will pay Hengrui $600 million at closing, $175 million on the first anniversary, and a contingent $175 million in 2028, totalling $950 million in structured payments through the near term. The remaining $14.25 billion is tied to development, regulatory, and commercial milestones. BMS gains exclusive worldwide rights to Hengrui’s four oncology and haematology assets outside mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau. Hengrui receives exclusive rights to four BMS immunology assets within those territories. The companies will also collaborate on the joint discovery and development of five additional programmes using Hengrui’s discovery engine.
The Pipeline:
Hengrui has evolved significantly from the generics manufacturer many American executives envisioned a decade ago. Today, it boasts a robust pipeline with over 90 therapies in clinical development across 400 trials, including 20 international studies. It is one of the global top 10 pharma pipelines according to Citeline, and its R&D spending exceeded 2.22 billion yuan (approximately $327 million) in Q1 2026 alone. Hengrui has 30 commercialised drugs in China and 20 approved in the EU, US, and Japan.
The timing of this deal is coincidental to President Trump’s visit to Beijing, but the economic drivers are clear: BMS faces a looming patent cliff that threatens to strip roughly $300 billion in revenue from the global pharmaceutical industry by 2030.