Welcome back to this week's edition of China Insights Weekly. Here are some of the key headlines from this week:

  • Beijing and Shanghai are further strengthening their lead in global scientific research output across major disciplines.
  • Carbios and Wankai are building the first enzymatic PET recycling plant in Asia in Zhejiang province.
  • Kelun-Biotech is closing a $1.3 billion deal for the development of oncology drugs.
  • Shanghai is establishing a state-owned commodity trader to strengthen its price-setting power.

Chinese cities, led by Beijing and Shanghai, are increasing their global lead in high-quality research.

According to the Nature Index, Chinese cities are leading the world in many areas of high-quality scientific output. In 2024, Beijing's output (measured by the Share metric) increased year-on-year by 9.14%, while Shanghai improved by 20%. In the physical sciences, Chinese cities held six of the top ten positions, with Beijing maintaining its lead. In the biological sciences, US cities such as New York and Boston dominate, but Beijing ranked third, just behind Boston. Guangzhou made a significant jump from 13th place (2023) to 9th in 2024. In chemistry, Chinese cities occupied all ten of the top positions; the highest-ranked non-Chinese city is Tokyo, at 12th. In the Earth and environmental sciences, Beijing had more than double the Share of second-ranked Nanjing. Shanghai and Baltimore-Washington both improved by one position, while Wuhan fell by two.

French company Carbios and Chinese company Wankai are partnering to build a pioneering PET recycling plant in Asia.

French Carbios S.A. and Chinese Wankai New Materials are building a groundbreaking PET recycling plant with enzymatic degradation in Zhejiang province. The facility, costing €115 million ($130 million), will be the first large-scale operation in Asia to use this technology. The plant is designed to process 50,000 tons of waste polyester annually and produce high-quality recycled polyester with a low carbon footprint. Wankai will hold 70% of the shares in the joint venture, while Carbios will hold the remaining stake. Wankai is also investing €5 million in Carbios, acquiring a minority stake and a seat on the board of directors. The joint venture will obtain an exclusive license for Carbios' enzymatic PET degradation technology in Asia for three years, with the possibility of extending it to an unlimited license upon reaching a capacity of one million tons.

Chinese company Kelun-Biotech is closing a $1.3 billion deal with US company Crescent Bio for the development of an oncology drug.

Massachusetts-based Crescent Biopharma and Chinese company Sichuan Kelun-Biotech have entered into a partnership worth up to $1.25 billion to develop combinations of PD-1/VEGF bispecific antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). Crescent will pay an upfront payment of $80 million, followed by milestone payments of up to $1.25 billion for the rights to SKB105 outside of Greater China. Kelun will receive an upfront payment of $20 million, plus up to $30 million in milestone payments, as well as royalty payments from sales of CR-001 in China. Both companies plan to initiate Phase I/II clinical trials for solid tumors in early 2026. Tomáš Kučera & Yereth Jansen
China-insights.com/gnews.cz – GH