Many Chinese biotech companies initially relied on out-licensing to fund their pipelines, a model in which a developer sells the rights to an early-stage drug candidate to another company, which then undertakes global development and commercialisation.
However, as their resources and ambitions expanded, companies had increasingly moved towards co-development arrangements and broader platform partnerships.
Unlike many western jurisdiction whose corpus iuris, namely nominate contracts, are old therefore often obsolete, Chinese law is well equipped to address the latest technological deal with its detailed techology contracts governed by the recent Chinese Civil Code, a contract which is not regulated as such and regarded as sui generis in most foreign jurisdictions. It is also woth recalling that although that is still very much overlooked by many, JVs do not exist anymore as a corporate form under Chinese law as of 2025: they had or have to transform into a regular corporate form such as the shareholding company, the limited liability company of the partnership enterprise. The JV part has to be regulated within such companies in the form of a separate partnership, technological, licensing, etc. contract.