Can China and the U.S. work together to cure cancer?
Illustration by Sam Ward
In the early afternoon of June 5, 2017, at the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference, hundreds of the world’s leading cancer researchers, pharmaceutical firms and biotech investors focused their attention on a virtually unknown Chinese firm called Legend Biotech.
At that time, the U.S. company Johnson & Johnson’s $10.6 billion research and development budget amounted to $3 billion more than all Chinese pharmaceutical firms combined. But despite hailing from a biotech backwater, Legend Biotech had secured a marquee slot at the conference to present data on their new drug for multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer that develops in bone marrow and kills more than 100,000 people around the world each year. The study’s principal investigator Zhao Wanhong explained that the drug used an exciting new cell therapy technology called CAR-T and that 33 out of 35 multiple myeloma patients in Legend’s trial went into remission within two mont
Exclusive longform investigative journalism, Q&As, news and analysis, and data on Chinese business elites and corporations. We publish China scoops you won't find anywhere else.
A weekly curated reading list on China from David Barboza, Pulitzer Prize-winning former Shanghai correspondent for The New York Times.
A daily roundup of China finance, business and economics headlines.
We offer discounts for groups, institutions and students. Go to our Subscriptions page for details.
Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. Trade Representative under Donald Trump, reflects on his decision to launch the trade war with China and begin the process of "strategic decoupling" — a process he says the U.S. must see through to the end.