China shook up AI with DeepSeek. Now it’s doing the same with medicine

China’s DeepSeek shocked the world by delivering unexpected innovation at an unbelievable price in January. But this disruptive trend isn’t confined to Big Tech: It has been quietly happening in the pharmaceutical sector.

China’s DeepSeek shocked the world by delivering unexpected innovation at an unbelievable price. But this disruptive trend isn’t confined to Big Tech: It has been quietly happening in the pharmaceutical sector. In September, Akeso, a little-known Chinese biotech company founded nearly a decade ago shook up the biotech sector with its new lung cancer drug. Ivonescimab, the new drug, was found in a trial conducted in China to have bested Keytruda, the blockbuster medication developed by Merck that has raked in more than $130 billion in sales for the American behemoth that has dominated cancer treatment. Patients treated with Akeso’s new drug went 11.1 months before their tumors began to grow again, compared to to 5.8 months for Keytruda, according to clinical data released at the World Conference on Lung Cancer, a top medical forum. Over the course of several days in early September, shares in California-based Summit Therapeutics, Akeso’s US partner, more than doubled to a record high, according to data from Refinitiv. The firm had licensed the right to commercialize the new drug in North America and Europe. At the time, though experts said it was a watershed moment for Chinese pharmaceutical companies, it was little noticed outside the industry. All that changed following DeepSeek’s exploits earlier this year, which put international attention on pockets of innovation in China — with growing global implications.