Beijing Shenogen Pharma Group Ltd. has signed a co-development deal with Lee’s Pharmaceutical Holdings Ltd., of Hong Kong, to combine Shenogen’s lead compound, icaritin, a traditional Chinese medicine-derived small-molecule drug, with Pexa-Vec (JX-594, pexastimogene devacirepvec), an oncolytic virus being developed in China by Lee’s. The companies have high hopes that the combination will have a significant impact on Chinese patients with late-stage cancers, particularly advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).