China, the current second-largest medical consumer market, has the potential to become the world’s second-largest medical player after its local biopharmaceutical companies expand to meet the unmet medical needs of patients at home and abroad, a source said. senior manager of a local drug manufacturer.

The high-speed growth of innovative Chinese biopharmaceutical companies – after more than a decade of progress in developing new drugs, conducting clinical trials and building talent – could last for years, said Yang Dajun, chairman. – CEO of Ascentage. Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company based in Suzhou.

“China has shown its biomedical capability during the COVID-19 pandemic, including developing diagnostic kits and vaccines that have benefited local and foreign individuals, hospitals and disease control authorities,” Yang said. whose company will debut at China International 2021. Services Trade Fair, which kicks off in Beijing on September 2.

The new addition of a health exhibition area for this fair also showed that the country is helping local biotech companies go global, Yang said.

“When domestic biopharmaceutical companies reach out to the world and serve international patients, it is an important way to bring Chinese wisdom to the development of the whole human community,” he said.

Ascentage is dedicated to developing novel, first-in-class or first-line therapies to address unmet patient medical needs in the areas of cancer, chronic hepatitis B and age-related diseases with a global focus.

The company, founded in 2009, has more than 40 ongoing phase I and II clinical trials for its eight initially innovative drug candidates in the United States, Australia, Europe and China.

One of the fair’s main exhibits will be its lead drug candidate developed for the treatment of drug-resistant chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), which affects around 10,000 patients nationwide each year, Yang said.

The orally taken drug has been granted Orphan Drug Designation and Expedited Designation by the United States Food and Drug Administration. A new application for the drug has also been submitted in China and it has been granted priority review status and a breakthrough therapy designation by the country’s drug review authority, according to the company.

“There is no similar therapy in the domestic market so far. The drug can save the lives of those patients with drug-resistant CML,” Yang said.

Only one drug treating these patients is available on the world market.

Last year, Ascentage obtained 10 orphan drug qualifications from the US FDA, becoming the company with the most such qualifications in the world that year.

A total of four of the company’s drug candidates have so far been granted 12 orphan drug qualifications by the US FDA, making it the company with the most such qualifications nationwide, according to the company. .

“The sign that China is becoming a major and powerful player in biomedicine is that local biopharmaceutical companies are able to not only meet the unmet medical needs of domestic patients, but also secure places in the global market,” Yang said.

He said such an ultimate goal echoes the goal of the 2021 China International Trade in Services Fair.

“We provide services to the world with China at the heart,” Yang said. “To serve patients around the world, we must rely on our ability to innovate as well as develop and promote the market in accordance with international standards.”

The company has nearly 150 authorized patents worldwide and has filed applications for more than 500 other patents, he said.

High-end markets, including the United States, Europe and Japan, and booming ones are key to the global development plan of domestic biopharmaceutical companies, Yang said.

“Booming markets include Southeast Asia and South America as well as some countries and regions along the Belt and Road Initiative. They actually account for about a third of the total market world,” he said, adding that Ascentage facilitates collaborations with these markets.

During the Beijing show, the company will sign strategic collaborations with different players in the healthcare industry, including accurate testing provider and insurance companies, to prepare to help patients use the right therapy, improve accessibility of medicines and to alleviate the financial burden of patients. after the marketing authorization of the drug candidate, which can be expected in the fourth quarter of this year.