BMS's New Strategy to Leverage Chinese Innovation

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2025-10-14

Five years ago, China's healthcare industry had already begun a profound transformation: policy design tilted towards innovation, market rules were reshaped by value, and the local industry developed at high speed.

For multinational companies (MNCs) operating long-term in the Chinese market, this was a critical moment presenting two options: responding to change with constancy or charting a new strategy that keeps pace with the times.
Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) was one of the first MNCs to make a choice.
In 2020, BMS became one of the first MNCs to elevate its China market strategy to a 10-year plan when it launched its China 2030 Strategy. This decade-long strategy, whose name echoes the Healthy China 2030 national planning outline, clearly demonstrates the company's long-term planning for development in the Chinese market.

Advancing with the Momentum of the Times

BMS is one of the most familiar foreign pharmaceutical companies to the Chinese public. But not many know that it was one of the first global pharmaceutical companies to enter the country in 1982 before introducing a first-generation cephalosporin antibiotic, the world's first angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor, and the first paclitaxel-based anticancer drug, addressing the most urgent patient treatment needs at the time.In 2014, based on deep insight into patient needs in critical disease areas such as oncology, BMS made a decision not understood by the market at the time: systematically divesting that year's mature product portfolio and beginning a transformation into an innovation-driven next-generation biopharmaceutical company. In retrospect, this drastic trimming was a strategic move whose foresight has gradually become apparent with the normalisation and institutionalisation of volume-based procurement (VBP) policies in recent years.It was precisely by focusing resources on innovative therapies with clinical value that meet contemporary patient needs that BMS was able to take advantage of the situation and launch the company's China 2030 Strategy in 2020, with the goal of becoming an innovation leader rooted in China, originating from China, bringing more innovative products to more patients faster.

Accelerating R&D by Riding the Momentum

With the implementation of the China 2030 Strategy, BMS is taking the opportunity to accelerate global R&D, registration, and approval processes.Traditionally, the entry of innovative drugs into the Chinese market involved a process in clinical research and new drug registration: waiting for positive results from global Phase II or Phase III clinical studies before initiating the Chinese clinical trial application (CTA) and subsequent new drug registration application (NDA). However, after China's regulatory agency officially joined the International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) in 2017 and became an ICH management committee member in 2018, mutual recognition of global R&D data broke the barriers of the original model. This made many MNCs realise that the old model could no longer keep up with China's pace of innovation.When updating its strategy, BMS made it clear that it would ensure that Phase III clinical trials of innovative drugs would be conducted simultaneously with the rest of the world, and that it would gradually participate in global early development in areas of urgent and unmet disease in China.China currently participates in 14 of BMS's 15 highest priority global clinical studies. The average enrolment proportion of Chinese patients is approximately 15%. Among these, 9 trials rank first globally in enrolment numbers.These figures, which reflect global simultaneous research and development, also led to simultaneous registration and approval:· Recently, BMS submitted an NDA for a new indication of deucravacitinib for psoriatic arthritis (PsA) in China, only 72 hours after the first global submission in the US market.· Additionally, multiple indications for its core oncology products

OPDIVO® (nivolumab) US HCP

and Yervoy (ipilimumab) have been approved at an accelerating pace year by year. From the initial shortest time gap of 4.5 months for approval at the start of the strategy implementation, to the approval of dual immunotherapy Opdivo + Yervoy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in March this year, which was almost concurrent with the EU and earlier than the US.· Last year, the first-line treatment indication for high microsatellite instability due to a deficient mismatch repair (MSI-H/dMMR) colorectal cancer (CRC) achieved a global-first nod in China.After transforming into a diversified biopharmaceutical company, BMS has focused its core therapeutic areas on oncology, haematology, immunology, cardiovascular diseases and neuroscience. Over the past five years, each of its innovative drugs approved or launched in China has been first-in-class or best-in-class.In the field of oncology, BMS is a pioneer in immuno-oncology therapy and dual immunotherapy. Although China's immuno-oncology therapy field is already a red ocean, the company remains at the forefront in new indication development, focusing on leading the early application and full-line layout of the sector in cancers with high incidence and unmet treatment needs in China, such as lung cancer, liver cancer and gastric cancer. In the field of haematology, its introduced global-first erythrocyte maturation agents broke through the treatment bottleneck of over 10 years for beta thalassaemia and nearly 20 years for myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS).In the field of immunology, the global-first TYK2 allosteric inhibitor it brought is the first oral drug approved globally in nearly 10 years for treating moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis.In the cardiovascular field, BMS holds the global-first in class cardiac myosin inhibitor, which has been approved for obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. This is the third innovative drug after Opdivo and Yervoy to win the Galien Award's Best Biotechnology Product Award from the Society of Apothecaries after the company's transformation.But accelerating the introduction of innovative products is only the first step.There is a consensus in the pharmaceutical industry: innovative drugs can only realise their due value when they benefit patients and enable them to achieve survival benefits and improve their quality of life.In the past, drug payment mainly relied on basic medical insurance, with long and irregular adjustment cycles for the medical insurance catalogue. However, since the establishment of the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) in 2018, the value realisation path for innovative drugs in the Chinese market has also undergone profound changes: the basic catalogue is dynamically adjusted annually, prioritising the inclusion of drugs for rare diseases and innovative therapies that are urgently needed in clinical practice.Additionally, with government support, commercial health insurance has seen the emergence and rapid development of the new form of Huiminbao insurance product in recent years, strengthening the connection between commercial insurance and basic medical insurance to meet the needs of different populations for high value innovative drugs.This year, the NHSA has for the first time formulated a commercial insurance innovative drug directory, clarifying that this directory mainly includes innovative drugs that fall out the scope of basic coverage and are temporarily unable to be included in the basic directory but have high innovation, significant clinical value and notable patient benefits, with the aim of further supporting innovative drugs and enhancing patient access.BMS is one of the pioneers in Huiminbao practice, and Opdivo is one of the oncology drugs included in the most Huiminbao projects. At the same time, the patient assistance program supported by the China Cancer Foundation has benefited over 40,000 low-income patients.Notably, this year BMS applied for the inclusion of its immuno-oncology drugs in the commercial insurance innovative drug directory. Among them, Yervoy, as the global first and currently China's only approved CTLA-4 inhibitor, can fill the current gaps in the medical insurance catalogue for monotherapy CTLA-4 inhibitors, non-fixed combination dual immunotherapy regimens, and treatment regimens for rare tumours (such as pleural mesothelioma), providing more clinical options.Simultaneously, the long-term survival benefits brought by the dual immunotherapy regimen offer an important direction for improving patient treatment outcomes. Therefore, its inclusion in the commercial insurance innovative drug directory not only helps connect and supplement the medical insurance catalogue but also enhances the clinical value of commercial insurance products, while broadening patient access pathways to innovative drugs, providing support for the advancement of a multi-level medical security system, and further alleviating patient treatment burden.Outside the oncology field, over the past three years, the four innovative drugs launched by BMS in its core disease areas of haematology, immunology and cardiovascular diseases were all included in the national medical insurance catalogue in the year of their launch. Among them, mavacamten for treating obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was included in the catalogur just one month after commercial launch.

Advancing with the Momentum in China's Innovation Ecosystem

If the first half of BMS's China 2030 Strategy was driven by numerical targets in R&D and commercialisation, then a series of highly watched industry moves over the past two years reveal that the keyword for the second half of this strategy will be advancing with the momentum.With the comprehensive upgrade of innovation, more and more opportunities are emerging across all aspects of China's biopharmaceutical industry circle. The quality of Chinese innovation is no longer confined to gaining a foothold but is beginning to trend towards redefining the standards of innovation. Business development (BD) collaboration is gradually gaining weight in BMS's playbook:· In October 2023, BMS acquired exclusive rights from

LianBio

to develop and commercialise mavacamten in China and other Asian markets. (In August 2020,

MyoKardia

granted LianBio rights to research, develop and commercialise mavacamten in China and certain other Asian markets. Less than two months later, BMS acquired MyoKardia for USD 13.1 billion).· In October 2023, BMS entered into an exclusive license and collaboration agreement with

SystImmune

(a wholly owned subsidiary of Biokin) for BL-B01D1, a potential first-in-class EGFR/HER3 bispecific antibody drug conjugate (ADC).· In December 2024, BMS regained exclusive rights from

Ablaze Pharmaceuticals

to develop and commercialise RayzeBio pipeline products (including ABZ-706) in Greater China markets (including mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan markets). Radiopharmaceutical therapies (RPT) are the next innovative leap in cancer treatment.· In June 2025, BMS partnered with

BioNTech SE

to co-develop and commercialise BNT327 globally, a bispecific antibody (BsAb) candidate originating from China. BNT327 is a next-generation BsAb candidate targeting PD-L1 and VEGF-A that has demonstrated leading clinical potential in multiple refractory solid tumours and is expected to revolutionise existing standard treatments.These collaborations not only materialise the vision of in China, for China, for the world in BMS's China 2030 Strategy but also reflect the BD dynamics of the innovative drug market — mutual empowerment and co-creation of value.Global biopharmaceutical giants need diversified and differentiated first-in-class or best-in-class assets to enrich and strengthen their pipelines. Small innovative pharmaceutical companies, especially startup biotechs, need to leverage the scientific expertise and innovation experience of global biopharmaceutical companies in global clinical development, new drug registration, market access and other areas. Both sides complement each other's advantages: biotechs focus on early-stage R&D, achieving breakthroughs in innovative technologies through flexible mechanisms; while century-old pharmaceutical giants like BMS accelerate the transformation of innovative drugs from potential molecules in the lab to medicines that benefit patients, realising clinical and commercial value through their global capabilities.

Conclusion

With continuous policy support, reasonable capital investment and huge market demand driven by demographic changes, China's pharmaceutical industry innovation ecosystem is flourishing. For global biopharmaceutical companies like BMS that have been deeply rooted in China for over forty years, what is needed is no longer just following the momentum of their initial entry into China or the riding the momentum of their next-generation biopharmaceutical transformation a decade ago, but rather advancing and even mastering the momentum to advance.This year, BMS launched a recruitment expansion in China. The demand for experts is also very clear — possessing cross-field communication, learning abilities, as well as expertise and innovation capabilities in their own professional field, BMS set to leverage this talent to "create new things and achieve great things together".