Hengrui’s Fifth Licensing Deal of 2025 Signals a Scalable China-to-Global R&D Model
Hengrui’s pact with Glenmark gives the Mumbai-listed company rights to develop and market SHR-A1811 across its territories while providing Hengrui with upfront cash, milestones, and royalties tied to commercial success. Antibody-drug conjugates remain among oncology’s fastest-growing modalities due to their “guided missile” delivery of cytotoxic payloads, and adding a capable South Asian partner broadens the molecule’s clinical footprint beyond Hengrui’s traditional Western out-licensing lanes. The share-price reaction in Shanghai and Hong Kong reflects investor confidence that Hengrui’s deal cadence is not episodic but programmatic, with each transaction de-risking R&D while preserving long-tail upside.
The Glenmark tie-up slots into a 2025 run that already features a cardiovascular out-license to Merck valued up to $2 billion and a sweeping multi-program alliance with GSK that includes $500 million upfront and options on 11 additional assets across respiratory, immunology and oncology. Taken together, these agreements diversify Hengrui’s counterparties and therapeutic areas while creating a steady stream of non-dilutive financing to fund its internal pipeline and Chinese commercialization. Structurally, the transactions also externalize late-stage trial risk and regulatory execution to partners with deep development infrastructure in their home markets.
Beyond 2025, Hengrui’s licensing playbook appears designed for scalability. The company has shown flexibility in deal architectures from classic global licenses to NewCo equity-linked structures used in earlier GLP-1 out-licensing, allowing it to maximize asset value under shifting market conditions. If clinical readouts for marquee programs validate early signals and partners maintain momentum, Hengrui could evolve into one of Asia’s most prolific originators of ex-China drug assets, pairing China-based discovery cost advantages with global development and commercialization muscle.
