Sugemalimab approved to treat adult patients with NSCLC in UK

The UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has approved the medicine sugemalimab (trade name Eqjubi) to treat adult patients with a type of cancer called non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC ).

The new marketing authorization was granted to China-based CStone Pharmaceuticals (HKEX: 2616), whose shares gained 5.9% to HK$2.15 on the news. Sugemalimab was first approved in China under the trade name Cejemly in June 2022.

Dr Jason Yang, chief executive, president of R&D and executive director at CStone, said, “This approval is a significant milestone in our global expansion strategy. Sugemalimab is the first domestic anti-PD-L1 antibody to receive approval outside of China and has already entered the world’s second-largest pharmaceutical market, the EU. Now, with the UK approval, sugemalimab continued to expand its presence in the European market. The long-term survival data, recently presented at this year’s ESMO Congress, further confirmed sugemalimab’s value in the frontline treatment landscape for metastatic NSCLC.”