If the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago from May 30 to June 3 demonstrated anything about the evolution of China’s biotechnology sector, it was that the industry’s center of gravity is shifting. While Chinese companies once relied heavily on PD-1 antibodies and licensing deals to gain international visibility, this year’s oral presentations showcased a broader innovation base, spanning phase III registrational studies, antibody-drug conjugates, bispecific antibodies, precision oncology drugs and next-generation cell therapies.
Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s potential $665 million deal for Oscotec Inc.’s cevidoplenib, a phase III-ready oral SYK inhibitor to treat immune thrombocytopenia, marks a new chapter of development focused on cancer therapy resistance for Oscotec, CEO Yoon Tae-young said.
Simcere Zaiming Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. has divulged new mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) inhibitors found to be potentially useful for the treatment of cancer.
Researchers from Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. and Shanghai Hengrui Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. have reported molecular glue degraders acting as proto-oncogene Vav (VAV1) degradation inducers found to be potentially useful for the treatment of cancer, inflammatory disorders and autoimmune diseases.
Previous work found that certain short RNAs can induce cell death in a RISC-dependent fashion by targeting several networks of survival genes simultaneously, therefore triggering multiple cell death pathways. This form of cell death was named death induced by survival gene elimination, or DISE, an effect that depends on a toxic 6-mer seed.
About 90% of brain metastases are often limited therapeutically speaking due to the impermeable blood-brain barrier (BBB). Nanocarry Therapeutics Ltd. has presented AxS007, a novel insulin-mediated nanocarrier that delivers multiple copies of trastuzumab and pertuzumab across the BBB, using native insulin as a brain transporter and increasing brain exposure.
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reported findings from studies of CBT-001-2334, a radionuclide peptide targeting carbonic anhydrase IX (CAIX/CA9) designed for diagnostic gallium labeling and downstream therapeutic isotope pairing. It features a DOTA chelator for use in theranostic applications through chelating either diagnostic or therapeutic radionuclides. Because it has limited expression in normal tissue, CAIX is an attractive target in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC).
Researchers from Pfizer reported preclinical efficacy of PF-08052667, an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting integrin β6 (ITGB6), in non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) models.
RSS
