Formation Bio on Thursday snagged ex-China rights to an autoimmune disease asset from Jiangsu Chia Tai Feng Hai Pharmaceutical (CTFH), its third licensing deal in six months, and its second sourced from China. The company uses AI to identify promising assets, design an efficient development strategy for each candidate, and speed them through clinical testing. Its latest find, FHND5032, is an oral small molecule activator of miR-124, an anti-inflammatory microRNA that's suppressed in several inflammatory diseases. By activating the target, FHND5032 is designed to "provide durable control" over chronic autoimmune diseases."FHND5032 is exactly the type of high-potential programme we built Formation Bio to accelerate," said David Steinberg, Formation's chief business officer. "With few miR-124 activators in development globally, we see an exciting opportunity to bring a differentiated treatment to patients who need better options."FHND5032, slated to enter the clinic this year, will be housed in a subsidiary of Formation dubbed Kenmare Bio. CTFH will receive a minority equity stake in Kenmare, along with an upfront payment plus development, regulatory and commercial milestones worth in total up to $500 million dollars; it's also eligible for royalties.Thursday's agreement marks a rapid dealmaking pace for Formation. In December, the company licensed LNK01006, a TYK2 inhibitor, from Chinese firm Lynk Pharmaceuticals; it expects to start a Phase I autoimmune disease study this half. The biotech also gained rights to anti-CD226 mAb RVW101 from IMIDomics last July, with plans to study the asset in ulcerative colitis.China heats upFormation's latest tie-up backs the prediction made by many of the pharma execs and investors FirstWord spoke with at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPM) — that China would continue to be a hotbed for deal activity in 2026 (see – Today at JPM: China's continuing biotech boom).Given the comparative absence of regulatory roadblocks and cost-savings of conducting clinical research in China — last year, the country surpassed the US in new clinical trial starts and drug approvals — the region is quickly becoming one that industry "cannot ignore." And data suggest that pharma certainly isn't ignorant to the opportunities in China. A recent FirstWord analysis found that in 2025, nearly a quarter of significant licensing deals by major pharma targeted assets from China, up from about 16% the year prior (see – Vital Signs: Charting China's course westward into 2026).Chinese firms also stole the dealmaking spotlight at JPM. A pair of rumoured takeouts for Western biotechs Revolution Medicines and Abivax did not come to fruition; instead, 2026's conference saw AbbVie license RemeGen's PD-1/VEGF-targeted bispecific antibody for $650 million upfront, while Roche paid $570 million upfront for rights to an antibody-drug conjugate from MediLink Therapeutics.Notably, Abivax holds the most advanced miR-124–targeting programme in the clinic. Last year, its oral miR-124 enhancer obefazimod met the primary endpoint in a pair of pivotal Phase III ulcerative colitis studies. While Formation's miR-124 asset is much further behind in development, it also gained FHND5032 for far less than the €15 billion ($17.5 billion) Eli Lilly was reportedly contemplating spending to buy Abivax.