China’s drug prowess on show at global event, drawing industry ‘shoppers’: Jefferies

China’s cost and efficiency advantages in drug development have been recognised at the world’s largest cancer research conference in the US, where companies were eagerly shopping for Chinese innovations, according to a new report.

Nearly a third of the presentations at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting last month involved drug candidates from Chinese companies, American brokerage Jefferies said on Monday in its “Shopping in China’s Biotech Supermarket” report. Chinese firms made 73 presentations at this year’s event, up from one a decade ago, it noted.

The event allowed novel drug developers to showcase their latest research findings and find potential partners to accelerate the development of drug candidates across global markets.

“Increasingly, multinationals are turning their attention to Chinese biotech companies and assets, given their cost efficiencies, accelerated timelines and promising quality,” said lead author Cui Cui, Jefferies’ head of healthcare research for Asia, in the report.

Such deals typically give the acquirers exclusive rights to develop drugs that have already shown promising efficacy and safety by conducting large-scale clinical trials and applying for approval in certain agreed markets. In general, the Chinese firms that discover the compounds retain the rights in their home market.