Ivonescimab Outperforms Keytruda in Head-to-Head Phase III Trial, Signaling China's Biotech Ascent from the Greater Bay Area
Key Insights
Akeso's bispecific antibody Ivonescimab outperformed MSD's Keytruda in a head-to-head Phase III clinical trial, drawing international attention to China's biopharmaceutical innovation.
The Greater Bay Area has emerged as a major biotech hub, with Zhongshan hosting over 650 biopharma companies and Guangzhou exceeding 6,500 firms with annual R&D spending above 3.8 billion yuan.
China now accounts for roughly one-third of innovative drugs in global development, with outbound licensing deals surpassing $130 billion in 2025 and nearly 20 innovative drugs approved from January to May.
GUANGZHOU – In a development that has drawn comparisons to a "DeepSeek moment" for China's biotech industry, Akeso, Inc. announced that its self-developed cancer drug Ivonescimab outperformed MSD's blockbuster immunotherapy Keytruda in a head-to-head Phase III clinical trial. The result, described by Li Baiyong, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Akeso, marks a significant milestone for the Zhongshan-based biopharmaceutical company and underscores the rapid maturation of China's drug development capabilities.
A Wall Street Journal columnist characterized the achievement as China's biotech DeepSeek moment, albeit in a more "incremental" fashion, reflecting the stepwise yet accelerating progress of the country's innovative pharmaceutical sector.
Akeso's Growing Pipeline
Li Baiyong reported that Akeso has developed more than 50 innovative drug candidates with full independent intellectual property rights. Eight of the company's self-developed drugs have entered commercial sales, including two first-in-class bispecific antibody drugs for cancer immunotherapy. The company's operations at the Akeso Greater Bay Area Technology Park in Zhongshan are running at full capacity, with a newly completed automated filling line producing medicines at a rate exceeding 20,000 bottles per hour.
The Greater Bay Area as a Biotech Powerhouse
Akeso's rise reflects the broader expansion of the biopharmaceutical industry across the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, a region spanning 56,000 square kilometers that encompasses Hong Kong, Macao, and nine cities in Guangdong's Pearl River Delta. The area boasts one of China's most complete biopharmaceutical industrial chains and one of the country's strongest concentrations of scientific and technological innovation resources.
Zhongshan alone is home to over 650 biopharmaceutical companies, while neighboring Guangzhou, the provincial capital, hosts more than 6,500 biopharmaceutical firms with annual research and development spending exceeding 3.8 billion yuan (approximately $558 million). Industry observers note that the region's competitive advantage lies not only in the sheer number of companies, but also in its ability to connect research, manufacturing, and market access within an integrated ecosystem.
China's Broader Biotech Momentum
"China's biopharmaceutical industry is accelerating its transition from catching up to running alongside, and in some areas leading global peers," said Tang Lida, vice president of the Beijing Frontier Pharmaceutical Industrial Think Tank. "Guangdong is among the most advanced and representative regions in this historic shift."
Across China, a growing number of biotech firms are leveraging an expanding pool of domestic researchers to move laboratory findings more rapidly into clinical development. One notable example is a CAR-T drug developed by a Chinese pharmaceutical company that is expected to break new ground in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer (search).
China currently accounts for approximately one-third of the world's innovative drugs in development. In 2025, the total value of outbound licensing deals for Chinese innovative drugs exceeded $130 billion. From January to May of this year, China approved nearly 20 innovative drugs, covering major and common diseases including lung cancer (search), psoriasis (search), and renal anemia (search).
Strategic Policy Support and Future Ambitions
Biomedicine has been identified as one of the emerging pillar industries for priority development in the outline of China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030). Guangdong Province plans to expand emerging industries including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and biomanufacturing over the next five years, with a target of growing its biopharmaceutical and health industry cluster to more than 1 trillion yuan by 2027.
Tang Lida emphasized that the biopharmaceutical industry is a sunrise sector with enduring growth potential, and the Greater Bay Area is well positioned to seize this opportunity. With deeper cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao, stronger integration of AI and biomedicine, and improved regulatory coordination and data connectivity, the region is expected to play an increasingly important role in delivering Chinese-developed therapies from laboratories to patients both domestically and internationally.