After sales of the RET inhibitor have been commercially disappointing, Blueprint said it is selling US rights to the drug to Rigel for $15m up front and potentially more than $100m in milestones.

Plus deals involving Biocytogen/Radiance, Maruho/AOBiome, LGChem/Rhythm, IASO/Umoja, JW Therapeutics/2seventy and 13 other transactions.

Confidence in growing in-house commercial capabilities has recently prompted several Chinese pharmas, including Simcere and 3SBio, to focus on obtaining domestic rights to novel drug assets developed by other China-based biotechs, rather than pursuing international deals.

As Shanghai seeks to develop into an international biopharma hub, the local government is encouraging commercial medical insurers to cover more innovative drugs in their products. The policy aims to provide an alternative solution to dominant pricing by the national public payer, which often imposes deep discounts on novel drugs in exchange for reimbursement coverage.