# Samantha Du (Du Ying)

Source: https://onco.cc/people/du-samantha/  
OnCo record `du-samantha` (Person). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Samantha Du founded Zai Lab in 2014 to license Western cancer drugs for China, bringing niraparib, zanidatamab and Tumour Treating Fields to Chinese patients years earlier than they would otherwise have arrived.

## Summary

Samantha Du (Du Ying) is Founder, Chairperson and CEO of Zai Lab. Formerly at Pfizer and a co-founder of Hutchmed's drug discovery arm, she founded Zai Lab in 2014 to license Western cancer drugs for China, bringing niraparib, zanidatamab and Tumour Treating Fields to Chinese patients years earlier than they would otherwise have arrived. The in-licensing model she created was copied by many Chinese biotechs, and she listed the company on Nasdaq in 2017 and in Hong Kong in 2020. Under her leadership Zai Lab has since built internal DLL3 and LRRC15 antibody-drug conjugate programmes alongside its commercialisation work.

## Fields

- Kind: Person
- Last checked: 2026-09-10
- Also known as: Ying Du; 杜莺
- Tags: china
- Role: Founder, Chairperson and CEO, Zai Lab
- Specialisms: In-licensing; Biotech leadership; Oncology commercialisation

## Sources

- Zai Lab: https://www.zailaboratory.com/

## Connected records

- companies: [Hutchmed](https://onco.cc/companies/hutchmed/), [Zai Lab](https://onco.cc/companies/zai-lab/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/du-samantha.json