Recently Yahoo News on-line picked up the following:
A little-known Chinese company made a drug that beat the
world’s biggest-selling medicine (1/2)
Wayne Chang, Will Ripley and Eric Cheung, CNN
Tue, February 25, 2025 at 6:59 p.m. PST·5 min read
China’s DeepSeek shocked the world by delivering unexpected
innovation at an unbelievable price. But this disruptive trend isn’t confined
to Big Tech: it has been quietly happening in the pharmaceutical sector.
In September, Akeso, a little-known Chinese biotech company
founded nearly a decade ago shook up the biotech sector with its new lung
cancer drug.
Ivonescimab, the new drug, was found in a trial conducted in
China to have bested Keytruda, the blockbuster medication developed by Merck
that has raked in more than $130 billion in sales for the American behemoth
that has dominated cancer treatment.
Patients treated with Akeso’s new drug went 11.1 months
before their tumors began to grow again, compared with 5.8 months for Keytruda,
according to clinical data released at the World Conference on Lung Cancer, a
top medical forum.
Over the course of several days in early September, shares
in California-based Summit Therapeutics, Akeso’s US partner, more than doubled
to a record high, according to data from Refinitiv. The firm had licensed the
right to commercialize the new drug in North America and Europe.
At the time, though experts said it was a watershed moment
for Chinese pharmaceutical companies, it was little noticed outside the
industry. All that changed following DeepSeek’s exploits earlier this year,
which put international attention on pockets of innovation in China — with
growing global implications.
“I do believe the Chinese biotech industry will play an
important role globally. And we [will] participate more and more,” Michelle
Xia, the CEO of Akeso, said in an interview last month with BiotechTV.
In a statement sent to CNN, Akeso said it was an “incredibly
exciting moment” to see its drug beat Keytruda, the world’s best-selling
medication.
“Akeso’s innovation is driven by a deep understanding of
disease biology and protein engineering, while benefitting from the fast
development time and the abundance of top-tier talent in China,” it said.
The rise of Chinese biotech
Until the 1980s, when China opened up its economy, most of
its pharmaceutical firms were state-owned. For most of the past 40 years,
Chinese biotech companies were mainly replicating existing medications, known
as “me-too” drugs.
But over the past 10 years, they’ve begun to innovate with
more advanced drugs that can compete directly with the Western offerings. And
they’ve signed billions of dollars in licensing deals with Western partners to
get their products to the rest of the world.
AstraZeneca signed a $1.92 billion deal with China’s CSPC
Pharmaceutical Group last year to develop cardiovascular medication, and Merck
has a $2 billion agreement with China’s Hansoh Pharmaceutical over an
experimental weight loss pill.
“People were aware that the biotech industry was growing
very fast in China, but very few saw it as a real threat to the top US
innovators,” said Rebecca Liang, a pharmaceuticals analyst at AB Bernstein.
“Now the threat is getting real, because you do start to see these next
generation drugs that are sort of a leapfrog.”
(to be continued)
Translation
一家名不見經傳的中國公司研發出一種藥物，打敗了全球最暢銷的藥物（1/2）
中國的 DeepSeek 以令人難以置信的價格實現了意想不到的創新，震驚了世界。但這種顛覆性趨勢並不限於大型科技公司：它也已在製藥業悄悄發生。
9 月，康方生物 - 一家成立於近十年、名不見經傳的中國生物科技公司 - 憑藉其新型肺癌藥物震撼了生物科技界。
在中國進行的一項試驗發現，新藥 Ivonescimab 的效果優於Merck公司開發的暢銷藥物 Keytruda，後者為主導癌症治療市場的美國巨頭帶來了超過 1,300
億美元的銷售額。
根據在頂級醫學論壇世界肺癌大會上發布的臨床數據，使用康方新藥治療的患者的腫瘤在 11.1 個月後才開始再次生長，而使用
Keytruda 治療的患者的腫瘤在 5.8 個月後就開始再次生長。
根據 Refinitiv 的數據，9 月初的幾天內，康方生物美國合作夥伴加州
Summit Therapeutics 的股價上漲了一倍多，創下歷史新高。該公司已獲得在北美和歐洲銷售該新藥的權利。
當時，儘管專家表示，這是中國製藥公司的分水嶺，但業內外卻很少注意到。今年早些時候，DeepSeek
的探索讓一切都改變了，中國的其中一些團體的創新引起了國際社會的關注，其全球影響力也越來越大。
康方生物執行長Michelle Xia上個月在接受
BiotechTV 採訪時表示: 「我確實相信中國生物科技產業將在全球發揮重要作用。而且我們將會有更多參與」。
康方生物在發給 CNN 的聲明中表示，看到自己的藥物擊敗全球最暢銷藥物 Keytruda，是一個「無比令人興奮的時刻」。
該公司表示： “康方生物的創新是源於對疾病生物學和蛋白質工程的深刻理解，同時受益於中國快速的發展時間和豐富的頂尖人才。”
中國生物科技的崛起
直到1980年代中國實施經濟開放前，大多數製藥公司都是國營企業。在過去 40 年的大部分時間裡，中國生物科技公司主要在複製現有藥物，即所謂的「仿製藥」。
但在過去十年裡，他們開始創新，研發出更先進的藥物，可以直接與西方藥物競爭。他們還與西方合作夥伴簽署了價值數十億美元的授權協議，以將他們的產品推向世界其他地區。
去年，AstraZeneca 與中國石藥集團簽署了一項價值 19.2 億美元的協議，開發心血管藥物，而Merck則與中國豪森藥業簽署了一項價值
20 億美元的協議，共同開發一種實驗性減肥藥。
AB Bernstein 的製藥業分析師 Rebecca Liang 表示：“人們意識到中國生物技術產業發展非常迅速，但很少有人認為這對美國頂尖創新者構成了真正的威脅” ; “現在威脅已經變得真實，因為你確實開始看到這些下一代藥物具有蛙跳式的發展。”
（待續）
Note:
1.Akeso, Inc. (康方生物), established
in 2012, is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the research, development,
manufacturing and commercialization of new innovative antibody drugs that are
affordable to patients worldwide. (https://www.akesobio.com/en/about-us/corporate-profile/)
2. A me-too drug (類似藥物)as defined as a
pharmacologically active compound that is structurally related to a
first-in-class compound, regarded as belonging to the same therapeutic class as
the original compound, and used for the same therapeutic purposes, but which
may differ in some respects, such as specificity of pharmacological action,
adverse reactions profile, or drug-drug interactions. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32358800/#:~:text=We%20define%)
3. A "me-too drug" is a medication that is similar to a
pre-existing drug, often with minor modifications, and acts on the same target
as the first drug of its kind. This differs from a generic drug (仿製藥), which is a copy of a brand-name drug with the same
active ingredients, dosage, and intended use.
