One Chinese biotech executive is entertaining hopes of China’s domestic market for novel drugs growing to CNY300bn ($41bn). However, the country’s public payer spent just CNY90bn on such products in 2023 and is expected to increase expenditure to more than CNY100bn this year.

The ranks of B7-H3-targeting antibody-drug conjugates under development in China have seen their first dropout, although elsewhere there are two FGFR2b-directed ADCs with first-in-class potential on the horizon. Meanwhile, there have been other discontinuations of KRAS G12C inhibitors and anti-BCMA CAR-T cell therapies in the country, while new players have surfaced in the areas of mRNA cancer vaccines and amyloid-beta-targeting antibodies for Alzheimer’s disease.

M&A edition: Mergers by Century/Clade, Eliem/Tenet, Kintara/TuHURA, Aditxt/Appili, Onconova/Traws and Apotex/Searchlight follow other companies joining forces in a tight cash environment.

Plus deals involving Incyte/CMS, Biocytogen/ABL, Bharat/Biofabri/Bilthoven, Dr. Reddy’s/Pharmazz, Veeda/Heads, Sosei Heptares/GSK, BioGeometry/Sanyou, Ono/Sibylla and Teijin/BioProjet