Insights
Insights on Biotech Partnering
Selected notes on asset strategy, partnership structures, and cross-border biotech business development.
Editor's note. Kerlann's coverage is selective and principal-led. We write on asset classes and deal-stage partnering where we have active advisory experience — not on every therapeutic modality.
Series · 10-part
Cell Therapy Partnership Strategy
A 10-part series on how cell therapy assets are evaluated, structured, and partnered — written for biotech BD teams and external innovation leads weighing in-licensing, co-development, or acquisition.
Featured
Selected articles
- China-Originated Innovation25 August 2026
China-Originated Assets: A Western BD Reader's Guide to Diligence
The diligence questions that matter most for a China-originated asset aren't the usual ones. Export approvals, data comparability, and regulatory screening deserve earlier attention than valuation.
- China-Originated Innovation25 August 2026
Out-Licensing from China: Sequencing US, EU, and Japan Conversations
Parallel conversations with US, European, and Japanese partners aren't independent processes. Sequencing them well protects leverage; getting the order wrong gives it away.
- China-Originated Innovation10 August 2026
Shanghai's First Deal Room: What We Saw at CPIC 2026
Kerlann spent CPIC 2026 in Shanghai's exhibition halls and BD sessions. Here's what the conference's first edition tells us about where China pharma dealmaking is headed.
- China-Originated Innovation10 August 2026
Inside the $137 Billion Question: China's Cross-Border BD Machine, By the Numbers
A closer look at the deal structures, regulatory friction points, and named transactions behind CPIC 2026's headline BD numbers, checked against independent sources.
- China-Originated Innovation10 August 2026
133 Deals, Falling Value: China's Quiet Domestic BD Boom
China's outbound licensing wave gets all the coverage. A record 133 domestic deals in 2025 tell a quieter, and in some ways more important, story about where China pharma BD is headed.
- China-Originated Innovation10 August 2026
Hong Kong Is Back: How 2025's IPO Reforms Are Refinancing Chinese Biotech
A regulatory reform, a wave of 18A listings, and two CPIC panels of the people structuring these deals. Here's what's actually driving Hong Kong's comeback as Chinese biotech's financing engine.
- China-Originated Innovation10 August 2026
When the World Comes to China: Inside CPIC's International Exhibition Floor
The BD deal flow between China and the West gets all the attention. A quieter trend is playing out on the exhibition floor: Western companies building real operations inside China's R&D ecosystem.
- China-Originated Innovation10 August 2026
Who Pays for Innovation? China's Commercial Insurance Puzzle
China just launched its first-ever commercial insurance catalogue for innovative drugs, weeks before CPIC 2026. Here's what it means for how a Chinese drug launch actually gets paid for.
- Cell Therapy Strategy21 August 2025
The Integration Edge
In cell therapy deals, post-signing integration of manufacturing, supply, and clinical operations often decides whether the partnership creates value — well before commercial readiness.
- Oncology Platforms30 July 2025
Platform vs. Product
Platform stories command premiums when they convert to multiple credible products. We look at how partners separate genuine platforms from single-asset programmes wrapped in platform language.
- Deal Structures & Market Entry9 July 2025
Deal Architectures from Landmark Partnerships
Notes on how recent landmark cell therapy and oncology partnerships have been structured — upfronts, biobucks, territory splits, and the contingent value mechanics that actually get exercised.
- Cell Therapy Strategy18 June 2025
Strategic Entry Points for New Cell Therapy Acquirers
For pharma and large biotech entering cell therapy for the first time, the choice between asset acquisition, platform deal, and manufacturing partnership shapes the next five years more than valuation does.
Upcoming
In preparation
- External Partnering
What BD Teams Need Before Reviewing an External Biotech Asset
- External Partnering
Structuring an Out-Licensing Process for a Single Lead Asset
- Oncology Platforms
ADC and ISAC Partnering: Where Payload, Linker, and Target Strategy Meet Deal Terms
- Oncology Platforms
Innate Checkpoint Programmes: What Makes an Asset Partner-Ready Today
- Oncology Platforms
Radiopharmaceutical Assets: Isotope Supply, Site Network, and the Real Deal Constraints
- Oncology Platforms
Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines: Reading the Second Wave of Partnering Interest
- Cell Therapy Strategy
TCR-T and TCR Engagers: Partnering Logic Beyond the CAR-T Playbook
- Oligonucleotide Therapeutics
Positioning Oligonucleotide Assets for Combination Regimens
- Oligonucleotide Therapeutics
HBV Functional Cure: Partnering an Oligonucleotide Backbone into a Combination Story
- Deal Structures & Market Entry
Option-to-License vs. Full Acquisition: When Each Structure Actually Fits
- Deal Structures & Market Entry
Japan and Greater China Carve-Outs: What Recent Deals Are Telling Us