https://www.scmp.com/rss/521764/feed The latest news and top stories on Macquarie. A leading entity in the financial services sector, Sydney Australia based Macquarie is a global investment banking and financial services group. They specialise in asset management, retail and business banking, wealth management, and advisory services, serving government institutional corporate and retail clients worldwide. Known as one of the world’s largest infrastructure asset managers and a global specialist in renewables and commodities,... en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Julie Zhang Julie Zhang A quarter featuring multiple eye-popping deals is no longer unusual for China’s pharmaceutical industry – in fact, it may soon be considered a slow season. In recent months, companies including CSPC Pharmaceutical and RemeGen have struck out-licensing agreements worth up to US$18.5 billion and US$5.6 billion respectively, while Haisco Pharmaceutical Group has added two of its own — most recently a deal worth up to US$745 million. Under the terms of the deal, the Beijing-based Haisco granted US... https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3350421/chinas-biotech-firms-shift-gears-can-ai-floor-accelerator?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3350421/chinas-biotech-firms-shift-gears-can-ai-floor-accelerator?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 18 Apr 2026 03:00:12 +0000 Julie Zhang Julie Zhang At least 10 weight-loss injections and oral pills are lining up for regulatory approval in China, in a market projected to reach about US$14 billion by 2030. Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster semaglutide, which generated about US$35 billion in global revenue last year, lost patent protection in China on March 20, clearing the way for rivals. The rush comes as China’s drug regulator accelerates approvals of innovative therapies, helped by a surge in out-licensing deals with global pharmaceutical... https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3347869/chinas-weight-loss-drug-makers-take-global-giants-novo-nordisk-patent-expires?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3347869/chinas-weight-loss-drug-makers-take-global-giants-novo-nordisk-patent-expires?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 26 Mar 2026 03:00:08 +0000 Julie Zhang Julie Zhang AstraZeneca said it would establish drug manufacturing facilities in Guangzhou and Shanghai as well as a separate innovation centre in Shanghai, joining a group of foreign players building new plants in China amid geopolitical tensions. The moves are part of a US$15 billion commitment the British firm pledged to make in the world’s second-largest drug market through 2030, unveiled during UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s visit to Beijing in January. China’s manufacturing capabilities, integrated... https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3347266/global-drug-giants-double-down-china-amid-trend-build-self-reliant-supply-chains?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3347266/global-drug-giants-double-down-china-amid-trend-build-self-reliant-supply-chains?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Mar 2026 06:30:09 +0000 Ralph Jennings Ralph Jennings US President Donald Trump’s reported threat that he may postpone a long-awaited visit to China – unless Beijing helps unblock the Iran-controlled Strait of Hormuz – may put the current trade talks in Paris at risk by sidelining earlier priorities and potential deals, analysts say. As the US-Israeli war in Iran enters its third week and disrupts global energy markets, Trump has reportedly urged Beijing to send warships to help reopen the strait and ease oil shipments. About 20 per cent of the... https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3346784/why-trumps-push-china-help-reopen-strait-hormuz-may-hurt-trade-talks?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3346784/why-trumps-push-china-help-reopen-strait-hormuz-may-hurt-trade-talks?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Mar 2026 12:30:11 +0000 Julie Zhang Julie Zhang The pace and size of outlicensing deals between Chinese drug makers and global partners have accelerated this year, highlighted by two agreements announced this week, each worth more than US$1 billion. The string of deals shows how China is becoming a sought-after source of drug candidates for multinational pharmaceutical companies, which are increasingly looking for long-term partnerships rather than one-off arrangements, analysts said. The latest deals, Sino Biopharmaceutical’s agreement with... https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3345404/china-outlicensing-tops-us52-billion-first-two-months-rise-global-deals?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3345404/china-outlicensing-tops-us52-billion-first-two-months-rise-global-deals?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Mar 2026 09:30:11 +0000 Julie Zhang Julie Zhang Ahead of China’s annual legislative meetings – typically a window into Beijing’s top-level policy agenda – this is the eighth entry in a series examining the complex economic recalibration driving China’s growth philosophy and its wide-ranging implications for local governments, financial investors and private enterprises. Investors are watching Beijing’s annual “two sessions” this week for signs that the country will address drug pricing and shore up its drug payment system, as a new form of... https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3345310/healthcare-investors-keeping-eye-two-sessions-clarity-drug-pricing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3345310/healthcare-investors-keeping-eye-two-sessions-clarity-drug-pricing?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Mar 2026 00:44:27 +0000 Julie Zhang Julie Zhang Hong Kong-listed mainland Chinese pharmaceutical companies are on track to deliver full-year profits, as surging drug sales and lucrative out-licensing deals with global partners start to pay off after years of research and development outlay. “Despite domestic challenges, particularly drug pricing pressure, the earnings performance of innovative drugs should still fare well in China in 2025,” said Tony Ren, head of Asia Healthcare Research at Macquarie Capital. Innovent Biologics, the first... https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3344928/hong-kong-listed-chinese-drug-firms-set-turn-corner-rising-sales-licensing-deals?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3344928/hong-kong-listed-chinese-drug-firms-set-turn-corner-rising-sales-licensing-deals?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 01 Mar 2026 04:00:22 +0000 Julie Zhang Julie Zhang A surge in drug research in China has driven the cost of a laboratory monkey to about 140,000 yuan (US$20,260), a sum that exceeds the country’s average annual wage. Official government procurement records showed that prices had doubled in the last five years for such monkeys, which are widely used in the preclinical stage to check whether a drug is safe and how it is absorbed, broken down and cleared by the body. Analysts said the soaring cost was underpinned by a flood of drug-licensing deals... https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3343819/chinas-biotech-boom-sends-price-lab-monkeys-drug-tests-climbing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3343819/chinas-biotech-boom-sends-price-lab-monkeys-drug-tests-climbing?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 18 Feb 2026 09:00:08 +0000 Julie Zhang Julie Zhang Foreign and mainland Chinese drug makers are fighting for a multibillion-dollar slice of the domestic weight-loss market by slashing prices by as much as 80 per cent, as China faces a worsening obesity crisis. Competition in the sector, dominated by global pharmaceutical giants Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, intensified after both secured obesity-drug approvals in China in 2024. The landscape is set to shift further when the patent on Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide expires in March in China, opening... https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3339544/chinas-weight-loss-drug-war-prices-slashed-80-obesity-crisis-worsens?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3339544/chinas-weight-loss-drug-war-prices-slashed-80-obesity-crisis-worsens?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Jan 2026 23:30:09 +0000 Lisa Lim Lisa Lim If 2025’s zeitgeist is manifested by the various Word of the Year (WOTY) choices of dictionaries and other language-related bodies, then this year has us unequivocally positioned in the virtual world. WOTY choices are based on a combination of usage, public vote and committee deliberation. “Rage bait” is Oxford’s WOTY for 2025. The term, which denotes something that deliberately annoys others, was first coined in 2002 to describe a driver’s reaction to being flashed at by another driver... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3337005/word-year-2025-choices-reflect-how-virtual-our-reality-has-become?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3337005/word-year-2025-choices-reflect-how-virtual-our-reality-has-become?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Dec 2025 09:15:08 +0000 Julie Zhang,Eunice Xu Julie Zhang,Eunice Xu If pharmaceutical drug patents are an hourglass turned over on the day of approval – with the approaching loss of exclusivity known in the industry as the “patent cliff” – then Big Pharma is currently watching the final grains of sand slipping through the neck of the glass. At the bottom of the hourglass awaits an unforgiving world of generic and biosimilar competition. Between 2025 and 2030, the patent cliff is set to be one of the biggest since 2010 by revenue at risk, according to... https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3337038/patent-cliffhanger-will-china-biotech-throw-big-pharma-lifeline?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3337038/patent-cliffhanger-will-china-biotech-throw-big-pharma-lifeline?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Dec 2025 00:00:10 +0000 Julie Zhang Julie Zhang Mainland China’s 17 million Alzheimer’s patients can, for the first time, pay less out of pocket for a costly drug touted as “historic” and “the beginning of the end” for the memory-robbing disease after Beijing launched a commercial insurance innovative drug list in an effort to make medicines more accessible and affordable. Leqembi, developed by Japan’s Eisai and costing a mainland Chinese patient about US$28,400 a year, could see its price cut by half after it was added to the inaugural... https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3336397/chinas-new-drug-insurance-lifeline-patients-or-squeeze-big-pharmaceutical-firms?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3336397/chinas-new-drug-insurance-lifeline-patients-or-squeeze-big-pharmaceutical-firms?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 16 Dec 2025 23:30:07 +0000 Enoch Yiu Enoch Yiu In an effort to promote a more vibrant image of Hong Kong, the countryside and hiking trails will be showcased to over 300 top bankers attending next week’s Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit, which will be opened with a video address by China’s Vice-Premier He Lifeng. BlackRock co-founder Larry Fink and General Atlantic chairman and CEO William Ford will be among the first-time attendees of the fourth edition of the financial summit, which runs from November 3 to 5, according to Hong... https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3330351/boardrooms-hiking-trails-hkma-courts-top-bankers-business-and-leisure?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3330351/boardrooms-hiking-trails-hkma-courts-top-bankers-business-and-leisure?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 26 Oct 2025 23:30:18 +0000 Ji Siqi,Kandy Wong Ji Siqi,Kandy Wong Analysts said a mutual de-escalation is expected in the short term between the US and China, a development that would provide some relief for global markets after last week’s barrage of economic sanctions, export controls and vows of triple-digit tariffs threatened to send the world’s two largest economies into another devastating escalatory cycle. On Sunday, US President Donald Trump adopted a softer tone compared to previous comments on the tensions with Beijing, telling reporters, “I think... https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3328829/us-china-trade-flare-short-term-scare-both-sides-seek-ramp-analysts?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3328829/us-china-trade-flare-short-term-scare-both-sides-seek-ramp-analysts?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Oct 2025 15:00:08 +0000 Eric Ng,Julie Zhang Eric Ng,Julie Zhang When Zhao Hong, chief doctor of China’s leading cancer hospital at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, told his fellow delegates at a Communist Party meeting in March that a little-known Guangzhou biotech firm’s cancer drug had beaten the world’s bestselling medicine, investors took notice. “As a long-serving front-line doctor, my most profound feeling is that China is at the best time of its biopharmaceutical sector’s development,” he told state media on the sidelines of the annual Chinese... https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3327701/chinas-biotech-renaissance-rising-drug-creation-prowess-attracts-global-notice?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3327701/chinas-biotech-renaissance-rising-drug-creation-prowess-attracts-global-notice?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Oct 2025 02:00:09 +0000 Eric Ng Eric Ng Eleven Chinese healthcare and biotechnology companies filed applications to list on the Hong Kong stock exchange in the last two days of September, taking advantage of an ongoing investment boom in the sector. The best-known names among them are online healthcare services firm We Doctor Holdings, Sichuan Biokin Pharmaceutical – known for a US$8.4 billion licensing deal with US-based Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) – and profitable cancer-drug developer Betta Pharmaceuticals. Other initial public... https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3327632/chinese-healthcare-biotech-firms-flock-hong-kong-ipos?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3327632/chinese-healthcare-biotech-firms-flock-hong-kong-ipos?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 Oct 2025 08:30:13 +0000 Eric Ng Eric Ng American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer’s up to US$7.3 billion acquisition of next-generation weight loss drugs developer Metsera will encourage more research spending on innovative products in China but is unlikely to draw new players into the fray, according to analysts. The acquisition of the US company, together with other deals by global pharmaceutical firms, would encourage companies already developing obesity drugs – including those in China – to continue their investments, said the... https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3326774/pfizers-metsera-acquisition-spur-chinese-search-next-generation-weight-loss-drugs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3326774/pfizers-metsera-acquisition-spur-chinese-search-next-generation-weight-loss-drugs?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Sep 2025 00:30:08 +0000 Sylvia Ma Sylvia Ma After the US Federal Reserve delivered its first interest rate cut of the year, analysts said China’s central bank would be most likely engage in moderate easing this year even as the cut creates more room for looser monetary policy. On Thursday morning, the People’s Bank of China set the yuan’s midpoint rate – also known as the daily fixing rate – at 7.1085 per US dollar, weaker than Wednesday’s rate of 7.1013. The move followed the Fed’s announcement on Wednesday of a widely expected cut of... https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3325935/after-fed-rate-cut-only-moderate-easing-expected-chinas-central-bank-supporting-yuan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3325935/after-fed-rate-cut-only-moderate-easing-expected-chinas-central-bank-supporting-yuan?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 Sep 2025 02:28:28 +0000 Maria Siow Maria Siow India is keen on tariff talks with the United States, but it is expected to stand its ground even as their bilateral relations sour on issues ranging from trade to foreign policy. In the face of the 50 per cent tariff imposed on Indian goods, Delhi is neither “desperate nor cornered”, according to analysts. Signalling a hardening of America’s position on the tariff issue, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Friday that he expected New Delhi to say “sorry” and cut a deal with... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3325181/not-desperate-why-india-remains-firm-us-tariff-talks-it-seeks-deal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3325181/not-desperate-why-india-remains-firm-us-tariff-talks-it-seeks-deal?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Sep 2025 08:29:48 +0000 Callum Jones,Kurt Sengul Callum Jones,Kurt Sengul Late last month, rallies were staged across various Australian cities under the branding “March for Australia”. The rallies, which were attended by avowed neo-Nazis and elected politicians alike, called for an end to mass migration. These protests are not unique to Australia. Recently, the United Kingdom has seen its own wave of anti-migrant demonstrations in cities such as London, Bristol and Birmingham. Despite claims by some that the Australian rallies were “hijacked” by the neo-Nazi National... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3324549/online-radicalisation-australia-here-and-elon-musk-part-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3324549/online-radicalisation-australia-here-and-elon-musk-part-it?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 Sep 2025 02:00:15 +0000 Eric Ng Eric Ng Wuxi AppTec, Asia’s largest provider of contract pharmaceutical research, has raised HK$7.70 billion (US$981 million) through a sale of additional shares in Hong Kong as it rides the wave of bullish appetite for Chinese biotechnology shares. The Shanghai-based company sold 73.8 million new shares to institutional investors at HK$104.27 each, a 6.9 per cent discount to the previous day’s closing price of HK$112 on Wednesday, it said in a filing to Hong Kong’s bourse on Thursday. The stock fell... https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3320237/wuxi-apptec-raises-us981-mn-hong-kong-offer-amid-growing-appetite-chinese-biotech?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3320237/wuxi-apptec-raises-us981-mn-hong-kong-offer-amid-growing-appetite-chinese-biotech?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 31 Jul 2025 04:44:09 +0000 Eric Ng Eric Ng Beijing’s plan to publish China’s first list of innovative drugs eligible for coverage by commercial health insurance will draw keen interest from pharmaceutical companies, but is not a “magic wand”, as insurers lack sufficient incentives to provide the coverage, analysts said. The National Healthcare Security Administration, in charge of the state-run basic healthcare insurance scheme, said in a policy document on July 1 that it would publish the list this year, primarily including drugs that... https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3318950/chinas-plan-boost-drug-coverage-commercial-insurers-no-magic-wand-analysts-say?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3318950/chinas-plan-boost-drug-coverage-commercial-insurers-no-magic-wand-analysts-say?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 21 Jul 2025 04:30:09 +0000 Brian Rhoads,Raymond Ma Brian Rhoads,Raymond Ma China’s consumer prices eked out a 0.1 per cent annual gain in June, providing some respite after four months of deflation caused by overcapacity, slowing exports and overzealous austerity compounding domestic demand concerns. Prices fell 0.1 per cent in the first six months of the year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, even with the unexpected June increase. Producer prices dropped 3.6 per cent in June, the biggest fall in almost two years, and the 32nd decline in a row. The... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3317509/overzealous-austerity-worsens-chinas-demand-woes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3317509/overzealous-austerity-worsens-chinas-demand-woes?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 09 Jul 2025 09:00:19 +0000