Sidley Austin: The Life Sciences Group With Over a Hundred Former Regulators / 盛德（Sidley Austin）：生命科学组，坐着一百多个前监管官员

Sidley Austin: The Life Sciences Group With Over a Hundred Former Regulators

盛德（Sidley Austin）：生命科学组，坐着一百多个前监管官员

In October 2026, Hengrui Pharmaceutical licensed the overseas rights to a GLP-1 drug to Novo Nordisk for a $300 million upfront payment, with total potential value of up to $2.6 billion. The buyer itself sells this class of drug; what it bought this time was an oral drug from a Chinese pharmaceutical company. Sidley Austin LLP advised Hengrui on its side. In 2026, as Chinese pharmaceutical companies license their assets outward, this is already the third such deal Sidley has taken on. Why does this US firm — built on regulatory compliance — keep getting called in?

2026 年 10 月，恒瑞医药把一款 GLP-1 新药的境外权益授给诺和诺德，首付款 3 亿美元，潜在总额最高 26 亿美元。买方自己就卖这类药，这回买的却是中国药企的一款口服药。盛德（Sidley Austin LLP）是恒瑞这一侧的顾问。2026 年中国药企往外授权，这已经是盛德接的第三笔。为什么反复找上这家做监管合规的美国所？

01  Organized by Industry

01  按行业编组

In 1866, Norman Williams and John Leverett Thompson opened a firm at the Marine Bank Building at the corner of Lake Street and LaSalle Street in Chicago — this was Sidley, which reached its 160th year in 2026. Sidley did not make itself a firm that handles only one kind of case: it now has about 2,300 lawyers across 21 offices, with a menu of practices split by legal field — capital markets, dispute resolution, restructuring, antitrust, and tax.

1866 年，诺曼·威廉姆斯与约翰·莱弗里特·汤普森在芝加哥湖街与拉塞尔街路口的海运银行大楼里合开了一间事务所，这就是盛德，到 2026 年满 160 年。盛德没有把自己做成只办一类案子的所：目前约有 2300 名律师、21 间办公室，业务表上排着资本市场、争议解决、重组、反垄断、税务这些按法律门类分开的部门。

Life sciences is a rare exception on that list. Sidley’s global life sciences practice has about 200 lawyers who are not concentrated in a single department but drawn from regulatory, transactional, litigation, and tax groups and organized into one team by industry rather than by legal field; many hold an advanced degree in a science or engineering discipline. The group’s capability comes from regulation: Sidley’s website states that more than 100 of its members have held senior positions at regulatory agencies in various countries, including the US Department of Health and Human Services, the US Food and Drug Administration, the US Department of Justice, the European Commission, and Swissmedic. In Chambers Global 2026, Sidley’s US Life Sciences Regulatory & Compliance practice is ranked Band 1. Leading the global life sciences practice is Sharon Flanagan, who also sits on both the Management Committee and the Executive Committee.

生命科学是这张表上少见的例外。盛德的全球生命科学业务约有 200 名律师，这些人不集中在某一个部门，而是从监管、交易、诉讼、税务各处抽出来编成一个组，按行业而不是按法律门类组织；组里不少人另有一个理工科的高等学位。这个组的能力来源在监管：盛德官网称，组内有 100 多名曾在各国监管机构担任高级职务的人，供职过的机构包括美国卫生与公众服务部、美国食品药品监督管理局、美国司法部、欧盟委员会与瑞士药品监督管理局。在《钱伯斯全球指南 2026》里，盛德的美国生命科学监管与合规业务列在第一等。主管全球生命科学业务的是 Sharon Flanagan，她同时在管理委员会与执行委员会任职。

The functions a cross-border license transaction requires fall to three kinds of lawyers: scope of the license, exclusivity or non-exclusivity, the upfront fee, the conditions for later tranches, and equity structure belong to the transactional lawyer; registration pathway, how much data may be used, and whether promotional messaging is compliant belong to the regulatory lawyer; antitrust filing, tax structure, and cross-border data have their own specialists. Sidley puts all three streams into one industry group, so all three types appear together on the engagement team; the transactional lawyer need not wait for the regulatory opinion to settle, nor the regulatory lawyer for the terms to be finalized.

一笔跨境授权交易要的职能，分头落在三类律师手上：许可范围划到哪、独占还是排他、首付款多少、后面几笔等什么条件才付、股权怎么配，归交易律师；注册路径、数据可用多少、推广口径合不合规，归监管律师；反垄断申报、税务结构与数据跨境，另有专人。盛德把这三路人编进同一个行业组，承办名单上三类人同时在场；交易律师不必等监管意见落定，监管律师也不必等条款定稿。

02  Thirty Years, a New Clientele

02  三十年，客户换了

Sidley opened a representative office in Beijing in 1996 and another in Shanghai in March 1999; its China life sciences business did not begin until 2007 — eleven years after the Beijing office — and was built by Chen Yang. Before joining the firm, she had done legislative work at the State Council Legislative Affairs Office and served in the anti-corruption bureau of a Beijing procuratorate. What Sidley gave her was the China corporate, transactional, and regulatory matters of multinational pharmaceutical companies: when a drug enters China, what stalls it is often not the sales contract but the registration pathway, whether overseas clinical data may be used, and whether promotional activities count as commercial bribery.

盛德 1996 年在北京设代表处，1999 年 3 月又设上海代表处；中国生命科学业务 2007 年才有，比北京代表处晚十一年，是杨晨建起的。进律所前，她在国务院法制办公室做过立法工作，也在北京一个检察院的反贪局待过。盛德交给她的，是跨国药企在中国的公司、交易与监管事务：药要进中国，卡住的往往不是买卖合同，而是注册路径、境外临床数据能不能用、推广活动算不算商业贿赂。

In 2026 a new opportunity emerged as Chinese pharmaceutical companies began licensing drugs to overseas buyers. In July, Chia Tai Tianqing, a subsidiary of Sino Biopharm, licensed the overseas rights to a PDE3/4 inhibitor to AstraZeneca for a $200 million upfront payment and total potential value of up to $1.9 billion; in September, Jiangsu Nhwa licensed the overseas rights to a sleep-disorder drug to the newly formed Somnivera for a $10.5 million upfront payment and subsequent tranches of up to $507 million, with Nhwa also taking a 15% equity stake in Somnivera; October brought the Hengrui deal, whose counterpart Novo Nordisk was advised by Ropes & Gray. The only lawyer who served as counsel on all three transactions was Chen Yang alone. In Chambers Greater China Region 2026, Chen Yang is ranked Band 1 for Life Sciences (International Firms); per her bio page, she has held that position for 14 years.

2026 年出现了新的机会，中国药企开始把药授给境外买方。7 月，中国生物制药的子公司正大天晴把一款 PDE3/4 抑制剂的境外权益授给阿斯利康，首付款 2 亿美元，潜在总额最高 19 亿美元；9 月，江苏恩华把一款睡眠障碍药物的境外权益授给新成立的 Somnivera，首付款 1050 万美元，后续分几笔最高再付 5.07 亿美元，恩华另取得 Somnivera 15% 股权；10 月是恒瑞那一笔，对手方诺和诺德由瑞格（Ropes & Gray）代理。在三个项里均担任了承办律师的只有杨晨一个人。在《钱伯斯大中华区法律指南 2026》里，杨晨列在生命科学（国际律所）的个人 Band 1；按她的履历页，这个位置已保持 14 年。

03  No Separate Team for Outbound Licensing

03  药企往外授权，不另起团队

According to the National Medical Products Administration, in the first half of 2026 Chinese innovative drugs were licensed outward in 81 transactions with a total value of about $110 billion — roughly 80% of the full-year 2025 total. Sidley did not stand up a separate team for this direction. From 2025 into 2026, it added emerging-company and venture partners in Boston and San Diego and a corporate securities partner in New York, and in August brought on Jiqiang Lin from Cooley. Of this new partner, Management Committee Chair Yvette Ostolaza said that China’s role in cross-border life sciences transactions and strategic collaborations is growing ever more important and has become one of the fastest-growing areas for clients and for this practice. Which direction a firm adds people usually tells you more than how it describes itself.

据国家药监局，2026 年上半年中国创新药对外授权 81 笔，交易总额约 1100 亿美元，相当于 2025 年全年的八成。盛德没有为这个方向另起团队。2025 年到 2026 年，它在波士顿与圣迭戈补进新兴公司与创投合伙人，在纽约补进公司证券合伙人，8 月又从 Cooley 招来林继强。对这位新合伙人，管理委员会主席 Yvette Ostolaza 的说法是，中国在跨境生命科学交易与战略合作中的角色越来越重要，已是客户和这条业务增长最快的领域之一。一家所往哪个方向补人，通常比它怎么描述自己更可信。

04  What Cannot Be Replaced: Regulation

04  换不掉的是监管

Viewed against Sidley’s history, several US firms have experience negotiating cross-border licenses; what Sidley has in addition is lawyers who do regulation year in, year out. These regulatory questions are answered by these people, and a team assembled on the spot cannot fill the gap. In 2007, multinational pharma asked whether a drug could enter China; in 2026, before paying, the buyer asks whether the drug can be listed overseas. The direction is reversed, but the questions are of the same kind, and it is Sidley answering both. In 2007 it did not foresee the outbound wave; it merely deepened a function that looked as though it served only multinational pharma.

把三笔交易放回盛德的历史里看，跨境授权的谈判，几家美资所都有经验；它多出来的是常年做监管的律师。监管上的这些事，就靠这些人答，临时组队补不上。2007 年跨国药企问的是这药能不能进中国；2026 年买方在付钱之前问的是这药能不能在境外上市。方向相反，问的是同一类事，答题的都是盛德。它在 2007 年并没有预见到出海潮，只是把一个看起来只服务于跨国药企的环节做深。

Organizing by industry is hardly novel among large international firms: life sciences naturally requires cross-disciplinary coordination, and in recent years several British and American firms have set up similar industry groups. Sidley’s group was not built by hiring once. More than 100 former regulators and consecutive dozen-plus-year individual rankings were accumulated year by year; bringing over one partner cannot make up that volume.

按行业编组在大型国际所里不算新鲜：生命科学天然需要跨门类配合，近年多家英美所都设了类似的行业组。盛德的这一组不是靠一次招人搭起来的。100 多名前监管官员、连续十几年的个人榜单位置，都是一年一年积累下来的；挖一个合伙人过来，补不上这个量。

Among Chinese pharmaceutical companies’ outbound licenses, the largest few transactions in the first half of 2026 came from three companies — Hengrui, Innovent, and CSPC. Whether the space can grow further will rise and fall with the overall trajectory of Chinese life sciences. If a large number of China’s mid-sized pharmaceutical companies, following the few large ones, can also go global, the room for this practice will only widen.

中国药企的对外授权，2026 年上半年金额最大的几笔出自恒瑞、信达与石药三家；后续能不能再有更大的发展，将和中国生命科学的整体走向同呼吸共命运。如果中国大量的中型药企，继少数大型药企之后也能够走出去，这个业务的空间就会越来越大。