A week of UK deals ex­em­pli­fies Chi­na’s grow­ing role in glob­al biotech in­vest­ment

We’ve re­port­ed about the biotech boom in Chi­na for a while now: both the do­mes­tic mar­ket for new drugs, and in­no­v­a­tive ther­a­pies primed to come out of the coun­try. But there’s more to that sto­ry, as Chi­na plants flags glob­al­ly through in­vest­ments. Just ask the UK.

Dur­ing There­sa May’s three-day vis­it in Chi­na last week, the British prime min­is­ter’s team seized the op­por­tu­ni­ty to en­list Chi­nese sup­port for UK biotech. Deals were signed: Chi­nese in­vestors will in­fuse $1.3 bil­lion in two British ven­ture cap­i­tal firms for their life sci­ence in­vest­ments; new build­ings will spring up at Cam­bridge Sci­ence Park thanks to a $277 mil­lion (£200 mil­lion) joint ven­ture be­tween Cam­bridge’s Trin­i­ty Col­lege and Tus Park, a branch of pres­ti­gious Ts­ingHua Uni­ver­si­ty.

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