As investment and BD collaboration across the biopharma industry become increasingly targeted and efficient, access to high-quality projects, two-way License-In/Out discussions, and precise connections to industrial capital have become the key levers for growth. To mark the official opening of YAFO Capital’s new office, we are hosting the YAFO Capital · Access Asia Summer BD Salon, built around a simple premise — New Office, New Connections, New Opportunities — as a small, highly curated, invitation-only gathering for industry exchange.
Drawing on the cross-border biopharma business development and investment resources YAFO Capital has built over the years, and in partnership with the Access Asia industry matchmaking platform, the event brings together 40 leading figures from across the biopharma sector in Shanghai’s Lujiazui.
Upcoming BD Salon
November 2026 Lujiazui BD Salon & Networking Reception
Date: November 23, 2026 | Venue: Room 1201, 958 Lujiazui Ring Road, Pudong New Area, Shanghai, China
The YAFO Lujiazui BD Salon is held monthly around the middle of each month, providing a platform for ongoing industry exchange and business collaboration through small-scale, high-quality, and highly interactive gatherings.
Each salon focuses on key topics across the biopharmaceutical industry, including innovative drug R&D, in-licensing and out-licensing opportunities, cross-border partnerships, industry investment and financing, and emerging technologies. Discussion themes are tailored to each session’s participants’ backgrounds and interests.
The salon also regularly invites experienced pharmaceutical business development executives, company founders, investment professionals, and industry experts to share insights and discuss real-world project experiences.
Whether you are a pharmaceutical company or investment institution seeking new collaboration opportunities, a biotech company looking to advance licensing or financing initiatives, or a BD professional interested in expanding industry connections and staying informed about the latest developments, you are welcome to join us.
Past BD Salons
October 2026 Session
Date: October 13, 2026 | Venue: Shanghai · Lujiazui
As the global biopharmaceutical innovation landscape continued to evolve, cross-border partnerships, innovation investment, and industry collaboration became increasingly important drivers of growth in the life sciences sector.
The October 2026 YAFO Lujiazui BD Salon featured François Huguet, Head of Strategy and Business Development at H.A.C. Pharma, who shared insights drawn from his experience in the European market. The discussion focused on how innovative therapies could successfully transition from clinical development to commercialisation in Europe, and how partnerships with European specialty pharmaceutical companies could accelerate patient access while optimising asset value.
The session provided a platform for dialogue between Chinese innovators and European market experts, helping companies better understand the evolving European healthcare landscape and identify effective pathways to bring innovative medicines to patients across Europe.
The YAFO Lujiazui BD Salon brought together innovative pharmaceutical companies, academic and research institutions, investment organisations, and industry partners to explore global life sciences innovation trends and collaboration opportunities.
Industry partners were welcomed to exchange insights, connect with global innovation resources, and advance collaboration across the life sciences sector.
1. Charlene Huang, Global Law Office: China for Global: New Trends, New Paths
Speaker: Charlene Huang
She observed that Chinese companies are rethinking their outbound approach: from buying early-stage products to buying platform capabilities and overseas channels, with License-in transactions increasingly paired with equity partnerships.
2. François Huguet, Head of Strategy and Business Development at H.A.C. Pharma: Chinese Biotech Through a European Partner's Eyes: A Buyer's Perspective from H.A.C. Pharma
Speaker: François Huguet
In Huguet's view, Europe is the next stop for Chinese biotech. Europe has more than 450 million people, universal healthcare coverage and a strong reimbursement framework, with high disease awareness and diagnosis rates, and accounts for 15–20% of global pharmaceutical sales — a share that reaches 40–50% in specialty areas such as haematology, immunology and oncology. More importantly, Europe offers four kinds of value for an asset: commercial value, given the large accessible patient populations in its major markets; strategic value, since a successful European launch validates the entire scientific data package; lifecycle value, as European registration can serve as a reference for entry into other countries; and investor value, because European commercial progress directly supports asset valuation and subsequent transactions.
3. Peter Zhang, YAFO Capital: An Introduction to BD Go
Speaker: Peter Zhang
BD Go's answer is a multi-agent network plus a structured data foundation: 16 types of agents covering 37 task tools, and a data foundation bringing together around 39,000 companies, 43,000 assets, 170,000 clinical registrations, 14,000 transactions and 34,000 patents. The platform supports private deployment, keeping data on the company's internal network to address pharma companies' data compliance and confidentiality concerns.
As investment and BD collaboration across the biopharma industry become increasingly targeted and efficient, access to high-quality projects, two-way License-In/Out discussions, and precise connections to industrial capital have become the key levers for growth. To mark the official opening of YAFO Capital's new office, we are hosting the YAFO Capital · Access Asia Summer BD Salon, built around a simple premise — New Office, New Connections, New Opportunities — as a small, highly curated, invitation-only gathering for industry exchange.
Drawing on the cross-border biopharma business development and investment resources YAFO Capital has built over the years, and in partnership with the Access Asia industry matchmaking platform, the event brings together 40 leading figures from across the biopharma sector in Shanghai's Lujiazui.
September 2026 Session
Date: September 23, 2026 | Venue: Lujiazui Huaneng, Shanghai
The September 2026 YAFO Lujiazui BD Salon featured the legal team from Tianyuan Law Firm, who shared insights on Deal Models and Key Legal Considerations for Early- and Late-Stage Product Transactions. As innovative drug assets progressed from laboratory research to commercialisation, pharmaceutical BD transactions at different development stages involved significant differences in asset characteristics, scientific risks and investment costs, resulting in distinct transaction structures, key considerations and contractual arrangements. Drawing on the team’s recent transaction experience, the presentation explored specific deal models and important legal considerations for both early- and late-stage pharmaceutical transactions.
In addition, YAFO presented a special session titled Why Talk About License-in Amid the License-out Wave? New Logic and Negotiation Strategies for License-in Deals by Chinese Pharmaceutical Companies. Against the backdrop of continued growth in China’s innovative drug out-licensing activities, demand among Chinese pharmaceutical companies for licensing innovative overseas assets remained active, although the nature of these opportunities and requirements continued to evolve. Drawing on practical transaction and negotiation experience, the presentation examined emerging collaboration models for early-stage assets and transaction negotiation strategies for late-stage assets.
The YAFO Lujiazui BD Salon brought together innovative pharmaceutical companies, academic and research institutions, investment organisations and industry partners to explore global life sciences innovation trends and collaboration opportunities.
Industry partners were welcomed to exchange insights, connect with global innovation resources and advance collaboration across the life sciences sector.
1. Long Gu, Equity Partner at Tianyuan Law Firm: Deal Models and Key Legal Considerations for Early- and Late-Stage Product Transactions
Speaker: Long Gu
From early discovery to IND and on to NDA, the scientific risk and investment cost profile of a project changes considerably. Beyond differences in valuation, the principal legal risk points, deal structure design and term sheet arrangements for co-development and licensing transactions all differ substantially according to the stage of the asset.
2. Qi Li, YAFO Capital: License-in 2.0 Buys Not the China Market, but China's Development Capability
Speaker: Qi Li
In the past, Chinese buyers followed the path of “overseas mid-to-late-stage assets — China rights — registration plus commercialisation”. Today, late-stage assets are moving towards a more rational China Valuation, while early-stage assets are shifting to “shared global rights plus rapid proof of concept in China”. As YAFO Capital put it on screen: the biggest misconception is treating epidemiology as a commercial opportunity.
3. Peter Zhang, YAFO Capital: From AI Platform to Industrial Practice
Speaker: Peter Zhang
The second half of the salon was just as dense with voices from both tool providers and industry. YAFO Capital launched its BD intelligent workbench BDGO, arguing that the core bottleneck in AI-driven drug development has shifted from molecule generation to decision-making. Built on a multi-agent architecture, the platform covers the entire workflow from project scoping and buyer matching to due diligence, and addresses data security concerns through private deployment.
4. David Jiang, BD Director of Business Development at Weijian Pharmaceutical Group: The Company's Transformation Path and External Collaboration Strategy
Speaker: David Jiang
The company currently focuses on six therapeutic areas — renal disease, haematology and oncology, respiratory, cardiovascular, anti-infectives and topical dermatology — with renal disease and haematology as its core franchises.
5. Hisun Pharmaceutical and 01 Life Sciences Presentations
Speakers: Aiying Zhang (Hisun), Meixi Chen (01)
The Hisun Pharmaceutical representative shared a BD strategy anchored in reaching RMB 15 billion in revenue by 2030: the BD team is assessed on revenue contribution rather than on the number of assets in-licensed, in-licensed projects must remain NPV-positive even in the worst case, and the team advocates a negotiating perspective of “viewing the earth from the moon”. 01 Life Sciences presented the mechanism of action, clinical progress and pipeline data for its AHR target in atopic dermatitis and IBD.
August 2026 Session
Date: August 27, 2026 | Venue: Shanghai
The August 2026 YAFO Lujiazui BD Salon featured Andera Partners, a leading European life sciences investment firm, which shared insights into how it built one of Europe’s top-performing life sciences venture capital funds, along with its vision for the development of the Chinese market and the broader Asian innovation ecosystem.
The salon also featured a special session in collaboration with the CKGSB Healthcare Club, which invited experts in the central nervous system (CNS) field to share the latest developments, emerging trends and industry opportunities in neuroscience.
1. Raphael Wisniewski, Partner at Andera Partners: How to Build Europe's Best-Performing VC Fund
Speaker: Raphael Wisniewski
Drawing on the evolution of the European life sciences investment market and his own practice, the speaker walked through Andera's investment footprint and return methodology in life sciences: from preclinical research through clinical validation to product commercialisation, Andera Life Sciences has backed innovative companies over the long term, supported a number of clinical-stage biopharma companies and helped bring multiple products to approval, while its BioDiscovery fund family ranks among the top-performing European funds on net returns.
2. Qiang Zhang, Research Director at YAFO Capital: China Innovative Drug Deal Trends Report 2026H1
Speaker: Qiang Zhang
A systematic review of the overall picture of China's innovative drug BD out-licensing in the first half of 2026.
3. Xing Xu, Senior BD Manager at YAFO Capital: Early-Stage R&D Collaboration Between Chinese Biotech and Global Pharma
Speaker: Xing Xu
The session covered the main models, deal structures and key considerations for early-stage R&D collaborations between Chinese biotech and global pharmaceutical companies.
4. Dora Zhang, Head of Business Development China at Accord Healthcare: Accord Healthcare and Its China Strategy
Speaker: Dora Zhang
A global generics and biosimilars company within Intas Pharmaceuticals focused on oncology, immunology and the central nervous system, Accord Healthcare has built mature product pipelines and commercial networks in multiple markets worldwide, and has repeatedly signed global licensing and collaboration deals with Chinese innovative drug developers covering both biosimilars and novel drugs, building up extensive cross-border BD experience.
JULY 2026 Session
Date: July 21, 2026 | Venue: Lujiazui, Shanghai (YAFO Capital’s New Office)
At a time when investment, financing and business development collaborations in the biopharmaceutical industry were becoming increasingly sophisticated and efficiency-driven, access to high-quality project opportunities, two-way licensing discussions and strategic connections with industry investors had become essential to driving business growth.
To mark the opening of YAFO Capital’s new office, the firm hosted the YAFO Capital × ACCESS ASIA Summer BD Salon, under the theme “New Office, New Connections, New Opportunities.” The event was designed as an exclusive, high-quality, in-person gathering to facilitate meaningful industry exchanges and highly relevant business connections.
Building on YAFO Capital’s extensive network and experience in cross-border business development, investment and financing in the biopharmaceutical sector, the event was organised in collaboration with ACCESS ASIA, its professional industry partnering platform, and brought together 40 invited industry leaders from across the biopharmaceutical sector in Lujiazui, Shanghai.
1. YAFO Capital CEO Sean Jiang: RTOs and Overseas Capital Market Opportunities for Chinese Biotech
Speaker: Sean Jiang
YAFO Capital CEO Sean Jiang opened with a discussion of Nasdaq reverse takeover (RTO) listings and the overseas growth opportunities available to Chinese biotech companies. Against the backdrop of today's global capital market environment and the financing and outbound ambitions of Chinese innovative drug developers, he systematically set out how RTO works as an alternative to a conventional IPO, covering the transaction process, time efficiency, financing linkage, PIPE arrangements and the conditions under which it applies.
2. XtalPi: AI Technology Upgrades the Drug Discovery Model
Speaker: Dori Li
XtalPi started from the patent cliffs facing global pharmaceutical companies and their pipeline-replenishment cycles, analysing the loss-of-exclusivity (LOE) revenue gap that MNCs will face over the next five to ten years and the resulting demand for in-licensing quality external assets, M&A and co-development.
3. Insilico Medicine: Generative AI Empowering Innovative Drug Discovery
Speaker: Betsy Rong
Insilico Medicine described the company's evolution from AI algorithms and software platforms to an AI-native biotech.
4. BDGO Live Demo: Making BD Information Management and Partner Matching More Efficient
Speaker: Duo Wang
The event also featured a live demonstration of the BDGO platform. Through hands-on demos, YAFO Capital's Duo Wang showed how the platform helps pharmaceutical industry professionals manage project information, screen collaboration opportunities, connect with industry resources and track BD progress.
Connect with Us
We welcome international biotech and pharmaceutical companies to connect with us and explore opportunities for meaningful industry exchange.
