Chinese innovation enhances biopharma sector

Even more striking, the China share is already 13 percent for all next-generation oncology biotherapeutics, he said.

"While we have yet to see much evidence of first-in-class discovery out of China－other than a few green shoots－one could reasonably expect this to change in the midterm," he said in the blog.

Yang Dajun, chairman and CEO of Ascentage Pharma, said the Chinese biotech company's success is a testimony to China's progress in pharmaceutical innovation.

Thanks to the continuously improving regulatory environment and the reform and development of capital markets in China, Ascentage, which was founded in 2009, stepped onto a fast development track in 2015 and was listed in Hong Kong in 2019.

Engaged in developing novel therapies for cancers, chronic hepatitis B and age-related diseases, the company has built a pipeline of eight clinical drug candidates.

It is also the only company in the world with active clinical programs targeting all three known classes of key apoptosis regulators. Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, is a regulated physiological process leading to cell death.

Last year, its self-developed drug olverembatinib received market approval in China as a treatment for adult patients suffering from tyrosine kinase inhibitor or TKI-resistant chronic phase or accelerated phase chronic myeloid leukemia.

Likely to become a best-in-class treatment in the field of drug-resistant CML in the world, the drug has been granted three Orphan Drug designations and a Fast Track designation by the US FDA, and an Orphan Designation by the European Union.

"Pharmaceutical innovation in China is increasingly clinical value-oriented and is in a transition toward developing higher-quality medicines rather than just imitating innovations of others," Yang said.

"To support such upgrades, a continuously optimizing innovation ecosystem is very important. Only with supportive policy measures, facilitating capital markets and growing demand, could enterprises increase innovation capabilities and achieve sustainable and high-quality development," he said.

EdiGene, founded in 2015, currently has four therapeutic platforms and has obtained the investigational new drug application approval in China for ET-01, a gene-editing hematopoietic stem cells therapy for transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia, a disease with severe unmet clinical needs in southern China.

The company is also developing in vivo RNA editing therapies, based on LEAPER, an RNA base editing technology discovered by its co-founder Wei Wensheng.

At this year's two sessions－the annual sittings of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference－many NPC deputies and members of the country's top political advisory body also made proposals and suggestions on how China should enhance the scientific and industrial innovation systems to improve new drug discovery and development.

Ding Lieming, an NPC deputy and chairman and CEO of Betta Pharmaceuticals Co Ltd, a Hangzhou, Zhejiang province-headquartered pharmaceutical company specializing in oncology, said in his proposal that China must strengthen efforts to enhance innovation ecosystems and encourage co-innovation and co-development of new drugs to increase overall competence of China-developed innovative drugs to catch up with the first-tier players.