Samantha Du (Du Ying)

aka Ying Du, 杜莺

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.

Formerly at Pfizer and a co-founder of Hutchmed's drug discovery arm, Du created the in-licensing model that many Chinese biotechs copied, listing Zai Lab on Nasdaq (2017) and Hong Kong (2020) and later building internal DLL3 and LRRC15 ADC programmes.