Innogen’s Newly Approved GLP-1 Contender Girds For China Ozempic Battle

Innogen is hoping the approval of its once-weekly GLP-1 drug Diabegone will allow it to chip away at Ozempic’s dominance in the Chinese diabetes market.

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Innogen's Diabegone is a newly approved homegrown contender to Novo Nordisk's Ozempic in China's domestic market. • Source: Shutterstock

A newly approved, homegrown once-weekly GLP-1 receptor agonist is seeking to disrupt a diabetes space in China currently dominated by Novo Nordisk’s same-class global blockbuster Ozempic (semaglutide).

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Hengrui Renews Global Phase III Push As China Players Plan Pivotal Multinational Trials

 

After a more than three-year hiatus, China's Hengrui has signalled its return to multiregional Phase III trials as it looks to globalize its innovative pipeline. Meanwhile, a number of other Chinese players have announced plans to kick off Phase III trials this year and beyond.

RemeGen Fast-Tracks Potential World-First BLys/APRIL Agent For gMG In Global Phase III Trial

 

RemeGen is planning to complete enrolment in the global Phase III RemeMG study with telitacicept in generalized myasthenia gravis by the end of 2025 or early 2026. The Chinese firm has already sidelined two other global Phase III trials with the molecule to prioritize the indication.

AstraZeneca Expands Emphasis On China, Already A Key Market

 
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UK pharma will invest $2.5bn in Beijing R&D hub, build a vaccine manufacturing site with BioKangtai, and partner in chronic disease with Syneron and in oncology/immunology with Harbour BioMed.

Kelun Wins World’s First TROP2 ADC Approval In Lung Cancer

 

While diverging from partner Merck & Co. in its study dosage of sacituzumab tirumotecan, Kelun has garnered the world’s first approval, in China, for a TROP2-targeting antibody-drug conjugate, for the treatment of lung cancer.

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Stock prices plummeted, particularly for vaccine makers and cell and gene therapy developers, after the US FDA’s top biologics overseer resigned over vaccine misinformation concerns.