AACR: Chinese Pharma Firms Showcase Enhertu Fast-Followers

Potential Efficacy, Safety Benefits?

 
• By Dexter Jie Yan
  
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Three Chinese companies including Hengrui Medicine are trying to overtake AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo with their me-too rivals to Enhertu in the sizzling field of HER2-targeting antibody-drug conjugates.

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Chinese ADCs followers of Enhertu trying to emulate the blockbuster's growth trajectory • Source: Shutterstock

Chinese pharma companies staged a major showcase of three fast-followers of AstraZeneca PLC and Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd.’s massively successful antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan) during the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual conference, touting the potential of three home-grown rivals to outdo the first-in-class drug in terms of efficacy and safety.

While all the Chinese ADCs contain the same key active component of HER2-targeting trastuzumab, the developers have tinkered with Enhertu’s...

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