China’s Akeso says cancer drug beat AstraZeneca’s Imfinzi in phase 3 trial

The biliary tract cancer trial is the latest breakthrough for Akeso’s ivonescimab, which has also shown promise in treating some lung cancers

Chinese biopharmaceutical firm Akeso announced on Wednesday that its immunotherapy drug had outperformed AstraZeneca’s Imfinzi in a head-to-head phase-three trial for biliary tract cancer.

The result represents another breakthrough for Akeso’s ivonescimab – which has already been licensed by the US firm Summit Therapeutics in a multibillion-dollar deal – as China’s biopharma industry increasingly looks to compete on the global stage.

The Chinese trial tested ivonescimab and chemotherapy against AstraZeneca’s Imfinzi (durvalumab) plus chemotherapy on a total of 682 patients with advanced biliary tract cancer – a particularly deadly form of cancer with a five-year survival rate of less than 5 per cent, according to a Nature study.

The results showed that patients taking Akeso’s novel drug lived longer than those using the AstraZeneca treatment, the company said in a Hong Kong stock exchange filing released a day ahead of its interim results.

The study marks the first positive phase-three study for ivonescimab in gastrointestinal tumours, potentially opening the door for the drug to be used in a “broader range of solid tumours”, said Xia Yu, Akeso’s founder, chairwoman and CEO.

However, Akeso has yet to disclose the exact survival figures from the trial, which the Zhongshan-headquartered company is expected to present at an coming conference.