Chinese company's drug beats world's biggest-selling medicine: media

LOS ANGELES -- A little-known Chinese company has made a drug that beats the world's biggest-selling medicine, said a CNN report on Tuesday.

"China's DeepSeek shocked the world by delivering unexpected innovation at an unbelievable price. But this disruptive trend is not confined to Big Tech: it has been quietly happening in the pharmaceutical sector," said the report.

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, according to the report.

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, said the report.

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.

"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," the company said in a statement sent to CNN.

Over the past 10 years, Chinese biotech companies have begun to innovate with more advanced drugs that can compete directly with the Western offerings, said the report. "And they've signed billions of dollars in licensing deals with Western partners to get their products to the rest of the world."