Deep Dive into China Healthcare Financing 2026 H1

Scope: 36Kr Pitchhub 2026 (January–May) healthcare industry210 deals(accounting for 19% of the total market, second only to advanced manufacturing).

In one sentence: three streams of capital in healthcare

1. Innovative drug outbound via MNC acquisitions — Terns Pharmaceuticals acquired for $6 billion, marking the maturity of China's innovative drug "License-out" pathway
2. AI for drug gaining momentum — Huashen Zhiyao's $787 million Series B, the largest single round for an AI pharma company
3. Concentrated Hong Kong IPOs for medical devices — 7 Hong Kong IPOs, including Ribo, Jingfeng, Northcore, Cofoe, etc.

Top 20 large deals

Separate interpretation of the three capital streams

1. Terns' $6 billion acquisition — a milestone for innovative drug outbound

On 2026-03-25, Terns Pharmaceuticals (innovative drug biotech) was acquired by an overseas MNC for $6 billion.This is the second-largest M&A deal in 2026 H1(second only to Silicon Labs China at $7.5 billion).

Why it matters:

• The "License-out + M&A exit" pathway for Chinese innovative drug companies has crossed the $5 billion threshold for the first time(benchmarked against Legend Biotech's $9.5 billion acquisition by J&J in 2023)
• Founders' exit expectations are reshaped — there is no need to fight hard for an IPO; licensing leading products to MNCs is also a viable exit
• Signal: China's innovative drug R&D quality is globally recognized, and $3–10 billion level deals should emerge one after another in 2026–2028

Why now:

• The U.S. IRA (Inflation Reduction Act) forces MNCs to update their pipelines
• Domestic innovative drug clinical data were read out successively from 2023 to 2025
• A-share / Hong Kong 18A IPO cycle → switching to a license-out cycle

2. AI for drug: Huashen $787 million + Chengyuan $150 million

Why "AI for drug" is becoming a new independent track:

• It is not just an "AI tool vendor" (such companies do not command high valuations)
• but an "AI-native biotech" (using AI to accelerate pipelines, with proprietary pipelines entering clinical trials)
• Huashen's $787 million Series B is already close to top-tier global AI biotech valuations(benchmarked against Recursion / Insitro)

3. Hong Kong IPOs are the main healthcare battlefield in 2026

7 companies listed via Hong Kong IPOs:

• Ribo Life Science HK$1.832 billion (small nucleic acid)
• Jingfeng Medical HK$1.199 billion (surgical robots)
• Cofoe Medical HK$1.062 billion (home healthcare)
• Northcore Life Sciences RMB 999 million (Hong Kong stock caliber)
• In addition,non-Hong Kong stock: Chengdu Neurite RMB 1 billion Series E (possible Q3 IPO) / QureBio $110 million Pre-IPO

Why Hong Kong:

• Chapter 18A: unprofitable biotechs can list (as long as market cap ≥ HK$1.5 billion + 1 candidate product)
• After the A-share STAR Market tightened requirements for unprofitable biotechs after 2024, capital clearly flowed to Hong Kong
• Hong Kong IPOs have lower valuations but higher certainty (compared to the lengthy A-share process)

Sub-sector distribution (leading companies)

Investor profile (healthcare-dedicated)

Top healthcare sector funds (appearing frequently in 2026 H1):

• Qiming Venture Partners — top-tier across all industries (also active in AI), ranks first in number of healthcare deals
• Legend Capital — Lenovo-affiliated healthcare-dedicated fund
• Hillhouse(Healthcare Division) — invests in both innovative drugs and devices
• Lilly Asia Ventures (LAV) — innovative drug-dedicated
• Bencao Capital / Highlight Capital — mid-to-late stage healthcare
• Yuan Sheng Venture Capital — early-stage healthcare
• State-owned capital: Chengdu Science and Technology Innovation Investment / Yuanhe Holdings (mixed investment in healthcare + manufacturing) / Wuhan Financial Holdings

Three judgments

1. Innovative drugs shift from "IPO exit" to "License-out + M&A"

Before 2023: develop innovative drugs → Hong Kong 18A IPO → secondary market cash-out 2026 H1: develop innovative drugs → license out single pipeline → company acquired by MNC → founder starts a new company

Why: Share prices of Hong Kong 18A IPO companies have generally fallen 50% below issue price, and the ROI of IPO exits is already lower than that of license-out.

2. AI for drug is an independent "expensive track"

Do not treat AI for drug as an "AI application layer" (valuation $100–300 million); its ceiling is benchmarked against Recursion / Insitro (multi-billion dollar). Huashen's $787 million Series B confirms this.

Conditions:

• Must have proprietary pipelines (pure tool companies do not get high valuations)
• Must have clinical data readouts (entering Phase 1+)
• AI must genuinely accelerate, not just be PR

3. Hong Kong remains the only exit window in 2026

Long A-share IPO cycle + U.S. stock delisting wave + founders cannot afford to wait → Hong Kong 18A / 18C is the only controllable exit path for healthcare companies.There should be denser IPO filings in 2026 Q3–Q4.

Cross-wiki references

• Overall industry overview:Panoramic Snapshot of China Venture Capital 2026 H1
• IPO + M&A exit side:Deep Dive into China IPO + M&A Exit Side 2026 H1
• Crawling methodology:36Kr Pitchhub Crawling Methodology

Data limitations

• 36Kr reports few small follow-on rounds after private rounds / D+
• "Undisclosed" amounts still account for ~45% in the healthcare track (49% across the whole market; healthcare is slightly better)
• The boundary between AI for drug and traditional biotech is blurred (Huashen can be classified as either frontier technology or healthcare)

As of 2026-05-19, May data for the healthcare track is sparse; another round of supplementation will be done in July.