China

The European Commission has issued a report on the protectionist medtech policies in China that are impacting imports and is considering measures to protect EU manufacturers.

Acepodia’s dual-payload antibody-drug conjugates can link multiple tumor-killing agents without antibody modification. Apart from a GPC3-targeting candidate, the Taiwan-US biotech is also working on a bispecific antibody ADC with two different payloads, its CEO tells Scrip in an interview.

Throughout 2024, Chinese firms as sole sponsors initiated a total of seven global Phase III trials that including US sites. BeiGene, Genfleet and InnoCare are expected to add four similar studies this year.

ZS principal Brian Chapman tells In Vivo what is troubling the global medtech industry at the turn of 2025, and takes the opportunity to chide the EU for its persistent fixation on taking on the “problem that did not need to be solved.”

China has granted its first approval for a stem cell therapy, to domestic firm Platinum Life Biotech’s umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cell product for corticosteroid-failed acute graft-versus-host disease with gut involvement.

The new year has already brought multiple deals for China-originated antibody-drug conjugates in the DLL3 class, which companies in the country dominate.

CARsgen's anti-Claudin 18.2 CAR-T therapy satricabtagene autoleucel has met its endpoint in a pivotal Phase II trial in later-stage gastric/gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma, paving the way for a China NDA filing.

In 2023, China emerged as the second largest exporter in the global biopharmaceutical pipeline. While innovation, international expansion, and commercialization remain pivotal, the industry's growth has increasingly relied on industrial efforts due to less active capital markets.