Michelle Xia, the president and CEO of Akeso, is representative of two huge trends in biotech — the licensing of drugs from China, and a new type of medicine called a VEGF-PDL-1 bispecific that has led to a feeding frenzy. Her company’s drug was licensed to Summit Therapeutics, a U.S. company, and beat Merck’s Keytruda in a lung cancer clinical trial. Summit’s CEO, Bob Duggan, is now among the richest executives in biotech as a result. Akeso has two other leading assets: ebdarokimab, a treatment for autoimmune diseases, and anti-PCSK9 antibody ebronucimab, a cholesterol treatment that has been approved in China.
From STAT:
The little-known Chinese biotech whose cancer drug beat Keytruda has global ambitions
12 people changing the course of the Chinese biopharma industry
Detailed data show Summit therapy beat Merck blockbuster Keytruda in late-stage lung cancer trial
Cancer therapy’s new ‘gold rush’: bispecific antibodies that hit key combination of targets
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