China’s oncology breakthroughs: Key takeaways

Author: Jeff Southwood

Among the regulatory reforms China made in 2015 and 2020 were provisions for priority review and breakthrough therapy designations. Anti-cancer therapeutics, especially for deadly and to date difficult-to-treat cancers like pancreatic cancer, would clearly fall into the first category. And attacking these diseases with new biologics (monoclonal antibodies and other new technologies) would fall into the second. And when you have these breakthrough technologies applied to treating these cancers, you get a flowering of promising (and already on-the-market) anti-cancer therapies flowing out of China.

Monoclonal antibody technology, as well as other advanced biologic and biotechnology approaches (including using AI for drug discovery, see Insilico, specifically), allow these companies to focus on specific disease states. For example, cancers that have, so far, been intractable (like pancreatic cancer or multiple myeloma) where there’s opportunity to not only save lives (the first priority, obviously) but also commercial opportunity.  

AdisInsights recent report, Strategic Pharma Insights: Asia Focus Part I: China’s Movers and Shakers looks in depth at the portfolios and pipelines of ten of China’s most innovative biotech and pharmaceutical companies, including:

Many of these companies have already-approved or late-stage therapies for a variety of cancers. Below you’ll find a brief summary of some of these, but you’ll find much more detail in the full report.

Novel technologies

As you see above, these companies have focused on newer biotechnology to develop these therapies, monoclonal and bispecific antibodies, in particular. But these companies’ approaches aren’t limited to that.  

Antibody technologies give these companies the ability to identify tumour targets, and to develop monoclonal and bispecific antibodies to go after those targets. This opens up whole approaches to treating cancers, like pancreatic cancer, that have, to date, been extremely hard to treat.

Some companies, like Insilico Medicine, are adding generative artificial intelligence (AI) to that approach.  

Insilico Medicine, for example, focuses on using AI to help in drug development. Insilico uses AI to create novel molecules with custom properties, to optimise existing compounds, and to enhance R&D efficiency. By analysing vast chemical and biological datasets, Insilico’s AI can identify potential drug candidates faster and more accurately than traditional approaches, reducing both development time and costs.

Commercialisation and market access

However, even developing therapies with these advanced technologies, and even being able to shepherd them through clinical trials to local approval, these China-based companies face challenges in bringing them to market around the world.  

That’s where partnerships with global pharmaceutical firms come in. Companies like Pfizer and Merck already have licensing deals to bring some of these breakthroughs to the global market. This combination of potential blockbusters that are either already approved and licensed or in late-stage trials in China, combined with the need to commercialise them globally presents rich deal-making opportunities for global companies.

Insights for oncology R&D teams

An important part of the future of cancer treatment, maybe even the eventual end of cancer, is taking place in China. With robust pipelines in late clinical trials based on advanced techniques and technologies, the ten companies profiled in the report represent both examples and opportunities for global oncology R&D teams.

Find out more in AdisInsights’ report, Strategic Pharma Insights: Asia Focus Part I: China’s Movers and Shakers. 

Related content

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• How China’s regulatory reforms are reshaping global clinical trials and partnerships
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• Breakthrough therapies and blockbuster drug launches that are shaping healthcare

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