#ESC26: AstraZeneca's relaxin pill shows promise in mid-stage heart failure trial

Chinese biopharmaceutical company Akeso announced on Wednesday that its immunotherapy drug ivonescimab outperformed AstraZeneca's Imfinzi in a head-to-head phase-three trial for biliary tract cancer. The trial, conducted on 682 patients with advanced biliary tract cancer, demonstrated that ivonescimab patients lived longer than those treated with the AstraZeneca treatment.

The study marked the first positive phase-three result for ivonescimab in gastrointestinal tumors, potentially expanding the drug's use to other solid tumors. Akeso's founder, chairman, and CEO Xia Yu stated that the trial results were promising, though the exact survival figures from the trial have not been disclosed. The drug, previously licensed by US firm Summit Therapeutics, is also being applied for approval to treat NSCLC in the United States.

Akeso has been conducting multiple trials to test ivonescimab on other cancer types, including colorectal cancer and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. The biopharma industry in China is increasingly competing with global giants like AstraZeneca, which generated over US$6 billion in revenue last year from sales of Imfinzi.