WESTERN drugmakers are striking more deals in China to access "bio-better" treatments for diseases from obesity to cancer, taking advantage of the early data on offer from the country's faster and more lightly regulated trials, reports London's Financial Times.

Large pharmaceutical groups including GSK, Merck and AstraZeneca have each signed US$1 billion-plus agreements in the past two years to buy the rights to develop and sell Chinese drugs outside the country.

Meanwhile, investors including Forbion, Bain Life Sciences and General Atlantic have ploughed hundreds of millions of dollars into new biotechs that will develop Chinese assets for western markets, hoping to be bought by major drugmakers.

A third of all the compounds that large pharmaceutical companies bought the rights to last year came from China, a dramatic jump from just 12 per cent two years ago, according to investment bank Stifel.