AstraZeneca has risen as one of pharma’s most prolific investors in China, including a $630 million pledge last week for full rights to AbelZeta’s cell therapy for cancer.
AstraZeneca is pumping $15 billion into its China operations through the end of the decade, further deepening the pharma’s investments there.
The funding runs through 2030 and will “significantly enhance” AstraZeneca’s capabilities in cell therapies and radioconjugates, which in turn will translate to novel therapies for cancer, autoimmune diseases and other conditions, according to a Thursday news release. The money will go towards essentially any step in the development process, from drug design and clinical development all the way through manufacturing.
AstraZeneca’s $15 billion commitment will also “bring Chinese innovation to the world,” the pharma said. As part of the Thursday pledge, AstraZeneca will also develop its existing production plants in China, including those in Wuxi, Taizhou and Beijing, which together supply medicines locally and to 70 international markets.
More and more biopharma dollars have been flowing into China over the last few years—and more than most, AstraZeneca has been a heavy investor. Just last week, the pharma paid $630 million for all remaining rights to a cancer cell therapy that it was developing alongside Shanghai’s AbelZeta. The AbelZeta alliance dates back to late 2023.
2025 was a particularly prolific year for AstraZeneca, which in March announced a slew of deals that, all told, could mean more than $10 billion in investments in China. These include a $2.5 billion investment in Beijing to construct the pharma’s sixth global strategic R&D center, and a global antibody alliance with Harbour BioMed for over $4.5 billion.
Then, in June, AstraZeneca put up to $5.3 billion on the line to partner with China’s CSPC Pharmaceutical to leverage the biotech’s AI-driven engine for immunological conditions. The pharma closed the year with another China contract, this time pledging potentially $2 billion for Jacobio Pharma and its early-stage pan-KRAS blocker.
