BMS bought into a 13-asset oncology and immune-disease pipeline alongside China’s Hengrui Pharma for $950 million up front: $600 million at signing, $175 million at the first anniversary, and another $175 million in 2028. Stack in option fees and milestones, and the deal tops out at $15.2 billion.
The closest comp is Hengrui’s $12 billion deal with GSK, struck in July 2025 across 12 assets in respiratory, oncology, and immunology. By that benchmark, BMS is paying a similar entry price for a pipeline that covers overlapping ground. Both are broad, early-stage bets on Hengrui’s discovery engine.
What does BMS actually get? Four Hengrui drug candidates for oncology and hematology, plus five programs it will jointly discover and develop with its new partner. BMS contributes four molecules focused on immune-mediated conditions. Peak-sales projections weren’t disclosed. The stage: all early.
Rights are split geographically. BMS doesn’t get China: Hengrui keeps mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau for BMS-originated programs, while BMS holds exclusive worldwide rights to Hengrui’s four assets elsewhere. Hengrui also retains a co-develop, co-commercialize option on certain assets internationally, plus tiered royalties on net sales outside its home territory.
For BMS, the deal fits a busy stretch: it launched Beeline Medicines with Bain Capital in April, paid $850 million for Janux Therapeutics’ tumor-activated therapy in January, and bought Orbital Therapeutics for $1.5 billion last October.
The partnership closes in Q3. At $15.2 billion all-in, BMS is betting that early-stage Chinese discovery translates into late-stage wins, a thesis GSK already put $12 billion behind.
Diana Kowalski