Same molecule, different paths: Where value goes in cross-border dealmaking in a new era

Drew Armstrong is the Executive Editor of Endpoints News, and joined the newsroom in 2022. He has nearly two decades of experience as a health care journalist in New York and Washington, D.C. most recently a 12-year career at Bloomberg News. There, he led the newsroom's U.S. coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic, developed its "Prognosis" health care vertical and managed a team of a dozen journalists covering every aspect of the American health care system. Prior to Bloomberg, he spent five years covering U.S. health policy at Congressional Quarterly, where he wrote about the enactment of the Affordable Care Act. His work as a writer, editor and data project manager has won or been recognized by multiple journalism awards, and he has appeared regularly on television and radio to discuss his work. Armstrong lives in the New York City area with his family.

Ken Song was most recently Chairman, President and CEO of Candid Therapeutics, which launched in September 2024 with more than $370 million built around ex-China rights to two Chinese T-cell engagers, and which UCB acquired in June 2026 for up to $2.2 billion. Before Candid, he was President and CEO of RayzeBio from its 2020 launch through its 2023 IPO and its $4.1 billion acquisition by Bristol Myers Squibb. He co-founded Ablaze Pharmaceuticals, which licensed RayzeBio's radiopharmaceuticals for the Greater China market, and has previously served as president and CEO of Metacrine, CEO of Ariosa Diagnostics and executive chairman of Omniome. Earlier in his career, he was a venture capitalist at Venrock and a consultant at McKinsey & Company. He holds a BS in biology from MIT and an MD from UC San Francisco.

Tess Cameron is a Managing Director with the Venture team at RA Capital Management, which she joined in 2020. She works on investments and serves on several company boards. Before RA Capital she held finance leadership roles at Foghorn Therapeutics, Wave Life Sciences and Biogen, and before moving into biotech and pharma she was a specialist in the corporate finance team at McKinsey & Company, focused on corporate transactions. She writes regularly for RA Capital's RApport on biotech policy and finance, most recently on why walling off China biotech weakens America. She holds a BA from the University of Toronto, with a double major in economics and peace and conflict studies.

Matthew Schiller is Head of Business Development (ex-China) at Vanotech, the U.S. subsidiary of Chengdu Kanghong Pharmaceutical Group, where he leads global partnering and licensing activities across oncology, CNS, and ophthalmology programs. He brings more than 30 years of business development and licensing experience spanning biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, and medical devices. Throughout his career, Matt has held senior business development leadership roles at Vanotech, NexImmune, Merck KGaA, Cell Signaling Technology, and several other innovative life science companies, leading strategic partnerships, licensing transactions, and collaborations with organizations around the world

Josie Zhou brings over 12 years of experience with McKinsey and serves as the co-leader of China Healthcare Innovation. She holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of California, Los Angeles. Josie has extensive experience supporting both global and local biopharmaceutical clients in China across a broad range of strategic and operational topics, with deep expertise in R&D, BD partnership, launch excellence, growth strategy, commercial model innovation, and organizational effectiveness. Josie’s recently engagement experiences including advising multinational pharma clients on China innovation strategies that integrate business development opportunities and R&D capability leverage; supporting leading China biopharma on globalization roadmap, including global portfolio prioritization and global development organization build, operating model and implementation roadmap; leading comprehensive assessment of the China AIDD landscape for a global MNC to help unlock emerging AI driven drug discovery opportunities. Josie has also partnered with several China biotechs to shape partnership strategies, portfolio decisions and support the IPO roadmap. Beyond pharma innovators, she works with investors and CROs to identify value creation opportunities in China. Josie has authored articles on China healthcare innovation, including the yearly McKinsey China healthcare insights in partnership with Biocentury on “Bridge to innovation” series since 2017 and several white papers on China innovation including “Beyond the headlines: six ways China is reshaping global biopharma”, “Vision 2028: How China could impact the global biopharma industry” etc.

Zairan Liu is Chief International Business Officer at PharmCube, where she leads the company's global market expansion, bringling leading data and intelligence solution to meet global customer's demand. Before PharmCube, she spent eight years at IQVIA strategy consulting, leading corporate and portfolio strategy, commercial due diligence, and market access engagements for top 20 pharmaceutical companies, shaping where they invested and how they priced their assets across the US, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Trained as a biophysicist at UCSF, with a background in computational and systems biology, she works to bring breakthrough innovation to the markets that value it most.