Scrip takes a look at the increasingly competitive landscape of Korean antibody-drug conjugate developers, which are now vying to catch up with their global rivals in the hot area.

Evopoint and Kaken also ring in the new year with multiple deals. Biocytogen licenses antibodies against a specified target derived from its RenMice platform technology to Hansoh Pharma.

The short-notice reopening of the country made 2022 a tough year for the health sector in China, where divestments, cash crunches and commercial challenges abounded. Throughout the year, despite clinical trial activity continuing to blossom, multiple Chinese innovative drug developers faced setbacks in the US from regulatory rejections of oncology products. Meanwhile, others quietly scaled back their operations in China, hit by the negative impact of deep price cuts.

From 2013 to November 2022, Chinese pharma companies as a single sponsor started a total of 35 international Phase III clinical studies for innovative drugs in the US, indicating a continuing push by the biopharma sector in the country to leverage increasing innovation to access this huge and lucrative market. Led by BeiGene, 20 firms have placed their bets on such studies and some are planning similar new moves despite an ongoing downturn in industry funding, this infographic analysis shows.