China’s biotech surge takes center stage at ASCO 2026

China’s Biotech Rise Takes Center Stage at ASCO 2026

For decades, the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting has showcased drug trials run predominantly at hospitals in the United States and Europe. This year, as thousands of oncologists, researchers, and executives gather at McCormick Place in Chicago from May 29 to June 2, the conference is telling a different story: China has arrived as a force in cancer drug development.asco-meeting

In what appears to be a first, one of ASCO’s five coveted headliner presentation slots has gone to a clinical trial conducted exclusively in China — a lung cancer study of ivonescimab, a bispecific antibody invented by Akeso Biopharma and licensed for global development by Summit Therapeutics. Chinese scholars will present 95 studies in key sessions, a new record compared to 48 in 2024 and 72 in 2025.businesstimes

A Coming-of-Age Moment

“This tells us that the Chinese biotech industry has arrived,” said Dr. Otis Brawley, a professor at Johns Hopkins who has attended ASCO every year since 1989, as quoted by the New York Times. Christoph Westphal, a biotech venture capital investor, called the top billing “a coming-of-age moment for China”.businesstimes

The ivonescimab data, to be presented Sunday at the plenary session, comes from a Phase III study of more than 500 patients with advanced lung cancer. Global pharmaceutical companies have rushed to license Chinese assets: about half of major licensing deals this year involved a drug from China, up from nearly nothing in the 2010s. In 2020, global companies spent about $9 billion licensing Chinese drug assets; by 2025, that number had surged past $137 billion.youtube

American Concerns Mount

But the enthusiasm is tempered by growing unease in Washington and the U.S. biotech industry. “The US is being seriously threatened,” said Dr. Robert Califf, a former FDA commissioner. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. health secretary, told lawmakers in April that “China is eating our lunch”.businesstimes

Critics worry that drugs tested solely in Chinese populations may not perform as well in American patients, particularly for lung cancer, where Asian patients tend to respond better to immunotherapies. Former longtime FDA oncology chief Dr. Richard Pazdur warned in a March opinion piece in JAMA that “regulators must prepare for an environment in which some therapies with substantial patient benefit may be studied primarily, or even exclusively, in China”.businesstimes

U.S. biotech startups say they are struggling to compete with China’s lower costs, faster timelines, and fewer regulatory hurdles. Some have imposed secrecy measures, refusing to publish papers or present posters at conferences to protect their work from being copied.businesstimes

The Debate Over What Comes Next

Others caution that blocking Chinese competition would deprive American patients of new medicines. “Patients either do well or they don’t, at the end of the day,” said Bob Duggan, co-chief executive of Summit Therapeutics. ASCO chief executive Dr. Clifford Hudis said the organization is “focused on results that can improve outcomes for patients, regardless of where they live”.businesstimes

The FDA is expected to decide by November whether to approve ivonescimab for the U.S. market, a decision that could test whether American regulators — and patients — are ready for China’s new role in global drug development.smmttx