Peficitinib Hydrobromide

On Monday, the Japanese pharma also announced that China’s National Medical Products Administration approved its antibody-drug conjugate Padcev in previously treated bladder cancer. More than a year after detaining an employee of Astellas for suspected spying, Chinese authorities have indicted the Japanese expat, Reuters reports.Japan’s Foreign Ministry announced the indictment, and Astellas confirmed the man, in his 50s, is an employee, according to the news service. No information on the exact charges or the person’s position at the company was disclosed.The man was detained back in March 2023 on suspicion of espionage just as he was about to depart the country. Japanese media has described the man’s background as a former senior official of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) in China who had worked in China for 20 years. Chinese authorities formally arrested him in October. The incident didn’t stop Astellas’ operations in China. On Monday, the Japanese pharma announced that drug regulators at China’s National Medical Products Administration approved its antibody-drug conjugate Padcev in previously treated bladder cancer. Astellas’ key application for the drug in a combination with Merck & Co.’s Keytruda in first-line bladder cancer was accepted for review by NMPA in late March. As Astellas noted, if approved, the regimen would be the first in China to offer an alternative to chemotherapy.Earlier this month, the NMPA also cleared Astellas’ JAK3 inhibitor peficitinib, known as Smyraf in Japan, for rheumatoid arthritis.During the three months ended in June, Astellas’ revenue in China increased by 2.4% year-over-year to 18.2 billion Japanese yen ($120 million).Astellas entered the Chinese market in 1994. During an interview in July with the government-run publication Beijing Business Today, Astellas China’s newly installed president Shirley Zhao, M.D., said the company hopes to introduce more innovative drugs, including in oncology and cell and gene therapy, in China. The relationship between China and Japan recently took a turn for the worse in the fall of 2023 following Japan’s decision to release treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean. The World War II history between the two countries and rising geopolitical tensions—and Japan’s general siding with the U.S. on international issues—didn’t help the situation.In a recent survey by JCCI in China, nearly half of Japanese companies said they either didn’t invest or reduced their investment in China in 2023 from 2022, according to Reuters. China’s recently amended counterespionage law and regulations on cross-border data transfers were raised as concerns among the respondents. Elsewhere, fellow Japanese drugmaker Kyowa Kirin a few weeks ago decided to exit China, selling its entire operations in the Chinese mainland, including five established brands, to local firm WinHealth Pharma for about $100 million.Meanwhile, Takeda CEO Christophe Weber told Bloomberg that his company remains “very open of potential partnerships with Chinese biotech.” The large Japanese pharma has made several deals with Chinese firms lately, including a molecular glue deal with Degron Therapeutics, a potentially $1.3 billion pact with Ascentage Pharma on a third-generation BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitor, and the $1.1 billion in-licensing of Hutchmed colorectal cancer drug Fruzaqla.