China's innovative therapies lead new cancer battle

Commercial success

At the commercial vanguard of CAR T-cell therapy is Carvykti, a drug produced by Nanjing-based Legend Biotech that targets multiple myeloma. Carvykti is the first Chinese CAR T-cell product approved by the USFDA.

The drug is available in 18 markets, and has so far been used to treat more than 10,000 multiple myeloma patients, according to Legend Biotech's first-quarter financial report.

Following strong sales of about $1.9 billion (up 96 percent year-on-year) in 2025, Carvykti had $597 million in sales in the first quarter of this year — up 62 percent year-on-year and cementing its position as the world's top-selling CAR T-cell product.

IASO Biotechnology's Zhang is hopeful China's innovative drugs win a significant market share within five years, driven by unrivaled research-and-development efficiency, rapid clinical trials and superior cost control. While the US and China are leaders in the CAR T-cell field, China's strength lies in its ability to scale rapidly, she said.

Kwong, the hematologist, believes the HKSAR should team up with mainland drugmakers, leveraging the R&D strength of the city's top universities and its strong clinical services.

"At Queen Mary Hospital, we identify novel treatments for patients that can be extended to next-tier hospitals or outpatient day wards, saving them costly inpatient charges," he said.

Henry Yau, managing director of HKU's Clinical Trials Centre, said few Hong Kong hospitals are equipped to offer CAR T-cell therapy. The local medical system must be updated to seize the opportunities from the mainland's rise in innovative medicine, Yau said. He proposed having at least one hospital per cluster being equipped to handle "living drugs".

The HKSAR should leverage its clinical research strengths to help small and medium-sized enterprises, instead of major industry players, go global or to penetrate the mainland market, Yau added.

While the West dominates traditional small-molecule drugs, the innovative drug race is still in its early stages, and China's cost advantage allows it to move faster and win a bigger market share, he said.

The NMPA approved 14 new drugs in June — 11 domestically developed, and four that were world firsts.

In the first half of this year, the administration endorsed 37 new drugs, with 29 domestically developed.

Wong Yuen-shan, who heads the HKSAR's Chief Executive's Policy Unit, said nearly all multinational drugmakers are eying the Chinese market for new drugs or the next pipeline.

He said the Northern Metropolis project and the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone were "game changers". They merge the mainland's industrial strength with the SAR's global rules to ease bottlenecks in talent, capital, data and logistics. In addition, the city has strengths in fundraising and policy innovation for Chinese drug developers.

Under the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's revamped listing rules, more than 80 biotechnology firms had gone public, with over $17 billion raised in total, as of April 14. The city launched the Intellectual Property Financing Sandbox last year to help its asset-light, IP-rich startups secure bank loans using patents and copyrights.