Hengrui’s deal economics: pharma, biotech and NewCo breakdown

Hengrui’s broad pipeline has made it a leader in out-licensing innovative products to all types of Western companies — multinational pharmas, established biotechs, and start-ups founded via the NewCo Model, in which an Asian company spins out assets into a newly formed biotech backed by Western VCs.

Across these partner types, a pattern holds for Hengrui: pharmas and NewCos deliver comparable per-product value (both north of $1 billion), while established biotechs come in lower. NewCos add an equity piece that has already paid off in at least one case. But every deal until last week shared a basic structure — Hengrui licensing out, the partner licensing in. The Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY) partnership rewrites that template...