BMS just signed a $15.2 billion drug deal with China’s biggest pharma company. The patent cliff left it no choice.

Bristol Myers Squibb has signed a deal worth up to 15.2 billion dollars with Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine, China’s largest pharmaceutical company by market capitalisation. The agreement covers 13 early-stage drug programmes across oncology, haematology, and immunology. None of the drugs have entered human clinical trials.