India, June 19 -- At the recently concluded American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, one of the most coveted headliner slots went to a clinical trial conducted only in China. For the first time, a Chinese-only study was placed on one of cancer research's biggest global stages.

The drug is ivonescimab, developed by Akeso Biopharma. It combines a programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) blocker - PD-1 is a human protein that acts as an immune system down-regulator that prevents autoimmune diseases but also thwarts immune response against cancer cells - and a vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitor (VEGF is a protein that promotes growth of new blood vessels in normal course, but is also produced by tumours to ...