China Quickly Moving up the Pharma Innovation Ladder

Source:China Daily Published 9:34 AM, Wed November 4,2020

Employees check medicines before they are packed at a pharmaceutical company in Nanyang, Henan province, in February. [Photo/Xinhua]

Cancer drugs in particular a promising undertaking in hyper-competitive space

In 2018, Wu Xiaobin, head of Pfizer China at the time, surprised many in the industry after jumping to BeiGene Ltd, a Chinese biotech startup founded in 2010.

Wu would never regret his choice to become the president of the Chinese biopharmaceutical company that focuses on cancer therapeutics.

"Although China started from almost scratch to establish an industry chain for innovative drugs, it is catching up very fast in related fields such as basic research, clinical trials, factory production, commercialization and quality control," he said.

Listed on both Nasdaq and in Hong Kong, BeiGene has become one of the most respected biotech firms in China.

It received approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration for its independently developed new cancer therapy Brukinsa (zanubrutinib) in November 2019, marking the first-ever such approval for a Chinese anti-cancer drug. The drug treats adult patients with mantle cell lymphoma.

In April, China's National Medical Products Administration approved the company's anti-PD-1 antibody tislelizumab as a treatment for patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma, the most common type of bladder cancer, following the therapy's initial approval in classic Hodgkin's lymphoma in December 2019.

In July 2020, Brukinsa was approved by the NMPA for two indications-mantle cell lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

The company now has six approved drugs, eight new drug applications pending in China, and over 40 clinical candidates and commercial-stage assets.

Yet, the company is just one among several Chinese pharmaceutical firms making high-profile R&D breakthroughs in new drug development.