FDA nod for Chinese cancer drug in US

Bloomberg

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval to a blood cancer drug from Beijing-based BeiGene Ltd, paving the way for American patients to access a Chinese cancer therapy for the first time.
The accelerated approval — ahead of even China’s own national drug regulator — marks a breakthrough for the growing legion of Chinese biotech companies determined to take on the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies in medical innovation and scientific research.
“This means we are not only bringing new drugs into China, we are also bringing new drugs from China to the whole world,“ said BeiGene President Wu Xiaobin at a press conference in Beijing.
“Chinese biotech is on the rise. The industry is not yet on top of the world but we are quickly closing the gap.”
BeiGene’s Brukinsa capsules was approved for patients with mantle cell lymphoma that have already received other therapies earlier, and will be a competitor to similar blood cancer therapies from AbbVie Inc and AstraZeneca Plc BeiGene’s Hong Kong-listed shares rose 6.6% to a record high.
Investment into Chinese biotech startups is surging as the opening up of the Asian giant’s $132 billion pharmaceutical market creates an unprecedented profit-making opportunity for health-care companies.
Last week, AstraZeneca announced a $1 billion fund with a Chinese investment bank to support local drug research.