BMS is Harbour’s second powerhouse partner this year after the Chinese biotech signed a potential $4.68 billion deal with AstraZeneca in March.
Bristol Myers Squibb is betting more than $1 billion for Harbour BioMed’s multi-specific antibodies, continuing the trend of Big Pharma turning to China for innovation.
Under the terms of the agreement, announced Tuesday, BMS will pay $90 million upfront to collaborate with the Chinese biotech on developing and advancing multi-specific antibody therapies. Details were otherwise sparse, with the partners revealing only that the pharma will be on the hook for up to $1.035 billion in development and commercial milestones.
BMS and Harbour did not specify how many antibody programs they plan to work on or what indications or therapeutic areas they want to address.
At the heart of Tuesday’s agreement is Harbour’s proprietary Harbour Mice platform, which generates biologics “with enhanced therapeutic potential,” CEO Jingsong Wang said in a statement. This technology can produce bispecific antibodies with potent tumor-killing activity or potentially therapeutic immunological or inflammatory effects, the company said.
BMS is Harbour’s second Big Pharma partner this year, after it scored a potential $4.68 billion deal with AstraZeneca in March, likewise to advance antibody development.
Other industry giants have similarly turned to China for novel therapies, including Gilead subsidiary Kite, which in October fronted $120 million in a cell therapy collaboration with Pregene. The pharma promised $1.52 billion more if the partnership hits certain milestones, plus royalties, though details regarding priority targets remain undisclosed.
AstraZeneca has also been to China multiple times this year, as it put $5.3 billion on the line in an AI-driven pact with CSPC in July, focusing on oral therapies for chronic diseases.
Gilead, AstraZeneca and now BMS have contributed to what has been a strongly east-facing year for biopharma, at least in terms of dealmaking. Just in the first half of 2025, the industry pumped more than $48 billion into China, according to an August analysis by IQVIA, which noted that this sum already exceeded biopharma’s total Chinese investments in 2024. In particular, Pfizer’s potential $6 billion play for 3SBio’s PD-1/VEGF antibody stands out as the biggest of the year so far.
