Samantha Du: Meet The Woman Shaking Up China’s Pharmaceutical Market

Samantha Du: Meet The Woman Shaking Up China’s Pharmaceutical Market

Samantha Du, Founder, Chair and CEO of Zai Lab.



Courtesy Zai Lab

Samantha Du is a force to be reckoned with in China's booming pharmaceutical market—and her success is unrelated to Covid-19 demand. The 56-year-old entrepreneur leads Shanghai-based pharma company Zai Lab, whose $6 billion market cap has increased threefold since its IPO valuation on Nasdaq in 2017. The company has filed for a secondary listing in Hong Kong, but hasn't announced size or pricing of the planned offering.

She founded Zai Lab in 2014, when Beijing was preparing to shake up China's healthcare industry by slashing red tape and fast-tracking drug approvals. Du got a jump on competitors by adopting a licensing model, acquiring the rights—often exclusive—to sell foreign firms' drugs in China.