13 September 2018 - While China has prospered in a variety of technologies over the last decade, one area where growth has been slow has been in innovative drug R&D. 

This is not surprising. Going from an idea to a marketed product can take 15 years and easily cost more than a billion dollars. Moreover, China has long focused on traditional medicines, slowing its entry into pharmaceuticals.

This is now about to change. The Chinese drug maker, Chi-Med, is nearing approval in China for an innovative drug that was discovered and developed by its own scientists. The drug, known as fruquintinib, is a VEGFR inhibitor (types 1, 2, and 3) which can prevent tumours access to blood vessels thereby preventing them from getting nutrients needed to survive. Such antiangiogenesis are often used in combination with other cancer therapies and are approved in the West to treat a variety of cancers. Chi-Med is seeking approval from the Chinese regulatory authorities for the use of fruquintinib to treat patients with colon cancer who have already failed at least two other chemotherapies.

Read Forbes article