The drumbeat of news regarding Asian pharma—and particularly China—continues to grow louder. At the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting, Akeso took center stage with an ivonescimab presentation, and Fierce’s Angus Liu took a chance to dive into the bigger picture and symbolism behind the event. Elsewhere, calls in Washington to crack down on China biotech transactions are getting louder. Plus more.
With its ASCO plenary session this past weekend, Akeso made history for the China biopharma industry. Afterward, in a series of interviews, market watchers explained to Fierce how the country’s biopharma rise is now undeniable—and how it’s not likely to slow any time soon.
In Washington, D.C., two lawmakers have called for an expansion of the COINS Act to include biopharma transactions. The act, which recently went into law as part of the U.S. defense spending bill, creates new notification requirements for American companies investing in certain Chinese sectors. While it doesn’t include biotechnology yet, some lawmakers aim to change that. And within the industry, skeptics are speaking up.
3. Takeda touts ‘tremendous potential’ of Innovent’s PD-1/IL-2 bispecific after seeing survival data
On the drug development front, ASCO provided an opportunity for partners Takeda and Innovent to share a glimpse of the potential benefits of their bispecific candidate, IBI363, in patients with advanced immunotherapy-resistant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Speaking with Fierce, Teresa Bitetti, president of Takeda's global oncology business unit, said the drug candidate holds “enormous promise.” Separately, Innovent on Thursday reported a phase 3 win for another Takeda-partnered drug, IBI343, in patients in China and Japan with locally advanced unresectable or metastatic CLDN18.2-positive gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma.
Even more intrigue swept ASCO with the revelation that Legend’s scientific founder, Frank Fan, M.D., Ph.D., was returning with a new company, Wondercel Therapeutics. The idea behind Wondercel and its approach is to create an off-the-shelf universal CAR-T platform to outmaneuver two prominent bottlenecks in the cell therapy industry: production scalability and the pitfalls associated with gene editing. Fan made his ASCO return after Legend Biotech stole the show at the conference 9 years ago with data on the drug that eventually became Carvykti.
Lately, no week can be complete without an Eli Lilly business development deal, and this week was no exception. On Monday, the Indianapolis drug giant linked up with Korea’s Hanmi Pharm in a $1.2 billion deal centered on a GLP-2 drug prospect. Hours later, the company unveiled a partnership with China’s Haisco centered on a handful of drug prospects. No details on targets were shared with the latter deal announcement.
6. Bristol Myers’ $800M bispecific ADC aces China breast cancer study, putting TROP2 drugs on notice
After Bristol Myers Squibb forked over $800 million on a first-in-class bispecific antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), there are indications the bet is paying off. In a China-only study, the drug, an EGFRxHER3 ADC called izalontamab brengitecan (iza-bren), significantly reduced the risk of death by 40% compared with the physician’s choice of chemotherapy in patients with previously treated triple-negative breast cancer. The results could serve to create a budding rivalry between the candidate and existing TROP2 ADCs.
Other News of Note: