Viiv Healthcare Group’s long-acting therapies to treat human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), including cabotegravir as an oral tablet and as an injectable, have been approved by China’s NMPA, expanding the company’s presence in the sector and giving HIV patients in the country a new treatment option.
Lifetech Scientific Corp.’s fully degradable iron-based absorbable coronary scaffold showed its safety and efficacy to treat non-complex coronary lesions that have not been previously treated with an interventional device during a three-year, first-in-humans trial.
Another collaboration between two biopharmaceutical companies in the Asia-Pacific region is adding fuel to an already heated fire for antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) development worldwide. Suzhou, China-headquartered Genequantum Healthcare Co. Ltd. and South Korea’s Aimedbio Inc. recently announced extending an existing partnership to jointly develop five ADC investigative drugs.
China’s NMPA approved Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. and Astrazeneca plc’s Enhertu (fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan) as the first HER2-directed therapy for patients with HER2-low metastatic breast cancer.
China’s Center for Drug Evaluation has cleared Jacobio Pharmaceuticals Group Co. Ltd.’s KRAS G12C inhibitor, glecirasib (JAB-21822), to begin a phase III pivotal study for pancreatic cancer.
Kelun-Biotech Biopharmaceutical Co. Ltd. raised HK$1.36 billion (US$174 million) in an IPO in Hong Kong to support its push into the increasingly competitive antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) market in China.
China’s Center for Drug Evaluation and South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety cleared Transcenta Holdings to begin phase III pivotal trials of osemitamab (TST-001) in combination with nivolumab and chemotherapy for first-line treatment of HER2-negative, Claudin 18.2 expressing locally advanced or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal cancer.
Moderna Inc. may have risen to prominence during the pandemic with its messenger RNA (mRNA)-based COVID-19 vaccine, but it’s now casting a net far larger and wider. The company said on July 5 that it is readying international approval for its second mRNA vaccine called mRNA-1345 for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)-associated acute respiratory disease based on positive interim data from the ongoing Conquer RSV study in individuals 60 and older.
Sinotau Pharmaceutical Group raised ¥1.1 billion (US$152 million) in a financing round to develop its radiopharmaceutical drugs for diagnostic and therapeutic interventions.
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