Chinese biotechs gear up for global trials to compete overseas

Investing in early-stage multicenter trials is imperative to achieve global commercialization for Chinese biotechs, but a US site may not be necessary, said speakers at the Chinatrials meeting held in Shanghai earlier this month, writes The Pharma Letter's local correspondent.

“A Phase I US trial only makes sense if you have great confidence in the asset and you are determined to sell it in the US,” said Jason Yang, chief executive of Chinese biotech firm CStone Pharmaceuticals' (HKEX: 2616). Running a US site is costly, and it is hard to get quality patients in the country, he added. “Patients in the US are usually very sick due to previous treatments. These are not good quality patients for Phase I studies,” Dr Yang said.

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