HONG KONG, Aug. 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Akeso, Inc. (9926.HK) (“Akeso”), a biopharmaceutical company committed to the research, development, manufacturing and commercialization of either first-in-class or best-in-class therapies, announced a review article featuring on Cadonilimab, a first-in-class PD-1/CTLA-4 bi-specific antibody developed by the company, was published in Drugs, a peer-reviewed medical journal specializing in pharmaceutics.

Article link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40265-022-01761-9

The article provides an in-depth and comprehensive summary of the prospective drug design rationale of Cadonilimab, clinical trials progress in different tumors, and milestones in the development of Cadonilimab leading to its first approval.

Cadonilimab received its first approval on June 2022 in China for use in patients withrelapsed or metastatic cervical cancer (r/m CC) who have progressed on or after platinum-based chemotherapy. Cadonilimab is the globally first dual immune checkpoint inhibitor bi-specific antibody approved for marketing. It is worth mentioning that the approval of Cadonilimab not only marks China’s innovative biotech companies starting to reap the fruits after years of R&D investments but also demonstrates that Chinese biotech companies represented by Akeso are closing the gap with global pharmaceutical companies rapidly in innovative drug development.

There are many ongoing trials of Cadonilimab as monotherapy or combination therapy for the treatment of a range of solid tumors, including cervical cancer, lung cancer, gastric/gastroesophageal junction cancer, oesophageal squamous cell cancer, liver cancer, and nasopharyngeal cancer.

In addition to Cadonilimab, Akeso also promotes many drug candidates efficiently. Ivonescimab (PD-1/VEGF bi-specific antibody, AK112), the second globally first-in-class bi-specific antibody, is in phase III trials, and the third bi-specific antibody(PD-1/LAG-3) is about to enter the clinical stage. Akeso hopes to bring more innovative high-quality biologics to the market for the benefit of patients worldwide.

For 50 years, Drugs has been the definitive journal of drugs and therapeutics, promoting optimum pharmacotherapy by publishing reviews and original research authored by leading international clinicians and researchers to support clinical decision-making. In 2022, Drugs has an impact factor of 11.431.