China

Dexter Yan talks about his September interview with Sharon Barr, AstraZeneca’s executive vice president, Biopharmaceuticals R&D. Hu Xu shares her articles on Sciwind’s ecnoglutide Phase III results and a Chinese law firm’s view on the proposed US BIOSECURE Act.

Sharon Barr, AstraZeneca’s executive vice president, biopharmaceuticals R&D, in an interview with Scrip, outlines how the company is using a holistic approach to define a new competitive landscape in the weight loss sector. She also sees new frontiers for the firm and its potential partners both in China and beyond to jointly explore aimed at maintaining healthy muscle mass while decreasing body fat.

Lilly’s Mounjaro to Pfizer’s Paxlovid, the WuXi group has been part of pharma majors’ sourcing chain. How big is the hole clients are to fill when the proposed BIOSECURE Act comes into effect? Here’s a Scrip infographic using Evaluate Pharma data.

Gilead’s divestment from a 50-50 joint venture with local partner, which came to light recently, will leave China’s cell therapies market under the total control of domestic players in the coming years.

Pipelines in bioconjugates continue to develop, from ADCs to XDCs, with radionuclide drug conjugates (RDCs) and antibody-oligonucleotide conjugates (AOCs) leading the expansion.

Without a placebo control arm, ZT002, a once-monthly GLP-1 receptor agonist from the Chinese biotech, reduced body weight by 17.1% from baseline at 30 weeks in Chinese obese patients, data from a Phase Ic clinical study showed.

A redistribution of pharma outsourcing activities, both ex-China and also a wider shift in CDMO work from North America down the line may be in store. A senior McKinsey executive discusses with Scrip these trends in the CDMO sector amid geopolitical tensions, the spurt in customer queries at Indian firms and also facets of the deals scenario.

Interim results from the Phase III REMARK study presented at WCLC showed the Chinese company’s second-generation ALK/ROS1 inhibitor met its primary endpoint as a first-line therapy in ALK-positive advanced NSCLC.

Ivonescimab has shown significant and "extremely commercially meaningful" improvements in progression-free survival versus Keytruda as a first-line therapy for lung cancer in a trial in China, potentially positioning it as a new chemo-free solution for all PD-L1-positive patients in this setting.

CorrectSequence led the pack of Chinese cell and gene therapy developers seeking new funding with a roughly $14m series A-plus round. In other modalities, antibody-focused developers Mabgeek and Novamab closed series Bs.

Akeso's CEO has highlighted favorable hazard ratio results for the Chinese biotech's anti-PD-1/VEGF bispecific antibody ivonescimab in a head-to-head trial with Keytruda across Chinese NSCLC patients with positive PD-L1 expression in a first-line setting.

China's Duality Biologics, founded in 2020, has developed two-thirds of its clinical-stage antibody-drug conjugates by combining antibodies acquired from domestic peers with its proprietary linker-payload platform.

The nod will help unlock a national market for the partners’ Dupert (fulzerasib) in which roughly 50,000 people are expected to be newly diagnosed with lung cancer harboring the KRAS G12C mutation in 2025. Meanwhile, two other homegrown rivals are also closing in on marketing clearances in China.

An employee of Astellas in China first detained 17 months ago on suspicion of espionage has been formally indicted and now faces trial. 

Being the Chinese biotech’s backbone asset in the autoimmune disease area, telitacicept, a BlyS/APRIL dual targeting fusion protein, has hit its target in a China-only Phase III study in generalized myasthenia gravis. The candidate is also being investigated in global Phase III trials in systemic lupus erythematosus and Sjögren's syndrome.

If closed successfully, the traditional producer of active pharmaceutical ingredients and generic drugs will scoop up the world’s second advanced KRAS G12D-targeting T-cell receptor (TCR) T cell therapy candidate, as well as an EGFR variant III-targeting chimeric antigen (CAR) receptor T-cell agent. Out-licensing efforts are already under way.

July was an active month for deals between Chinese biopharma firms, as some looked to build their pipelines and others for partners to help commercialize products moving to market. Two ADCs, a GLP-1R/GIPR fusion protein and an IL-4Rα antibody were among the assets changing hands.

RNK Pharma founder and CEO Yaning Wang joins Brian Yang to discuss the latest biopharma stimulus policies offered by Shanghai and the globalization of China biotech. Dexter Yan also talks about China biotech initial public offering trends in the first half of this year. 

Amid stricter regulatory reviews of applications for IPOs across all sectors, such offerings in biotech have been in hiatus on the Chinese mainland in 2024 to date. Meanwhile, three bioventures raised a combined $217.8m as they floated on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in the first half.

Everything seemed to be aligned for success, but shares in leading Chinese antibody developer RemeGen recently dropped by nearly 40%, reflecting a range of internal and external likely factors.