Chinese doctors have reported a milestone in domestically made innovative medicine, announcing that a combination of Chinese-developed drugs has been found to be more effective for a certain type of lung cancer than the current international standard treatment.

Cancer patients treated with the combination therapy experienced a median progression-free survival increase of 3.9 months compared with those receiving the globally recognized drug Keytruda, also known as pembrolizumab — reaching 11 months in total, with a 30 percent reduction in disease progression and death risk, according to the research team. Pembrolizumab has long been the standard first-line treatment for PD-L1-positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients, with a median progression-free survival of about six months.

Professor Han Baohui of Shanghai Chest Hospital Affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University presented the findings on Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the world's largest and most authoritative clinical oncology conference.

The drug combination consists of Benmelstobart injection and Anlotinib capsules, both developed by Hong Kong-listed Sino Biopharmaceutical, or Sino Biopharm. It was tested as a first-line treatment for PD-L1-positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients in the "CAMPASS study", a randomized, Phase III clinical trial that enrolled more than 500 patients.

The study was presented in the conference's highest category of Late-Breaking Abstract.

Eric Tse, CEO of Sino Biopharm, said the achievement demonstrated the therapeutic potential of domestic innovative drugs.

"Such an achievement of winning over the world's recognized 'king of medicine' signified that domestic innovative therapies have penetrated the forefront of international cancer treatment, potentially transitioning from followers to leaders in the field," he said.

Benmelstobart is an innovative anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody developed independently by Sino Biopharm. Anlotinib is the only approved multi-target anti-angiogenic tyrosine kinase inhibitor for third-line and above treatment of non-small cell lung cancer in China.

Clinical research data indicated that almost all subgroups of patients benefited from the combination therapy, with the overall response rate and disease control rate also improving compared with pembrolizumab alone.

"As the world's first combination of an anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody and a multi-target small molecule anti-angiogenic drug that has achieved positive results over pembrolizumab, this therapy may provide a superior first-line treatment option for PD-L1-positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients," Han said.

Professor Li Kai, co-lead researcher of the study and an oncologist at Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, said, "In the clinical research, among the patients with high PD-L1 expression, the median progression-free survival with pembrolizumab treatment was 7.2 months, whereas that with the combination regimen reached 13.3 months, benefiting patients more effectively."

Li expressed hope that the treatment combination would be approved soon to benefit more patients.

Global cancer data in 2022 showed lung cancer ranked first in both incidence and mortality worldwide and in China among all malignant tumors, with non-small cell lung cancer accounting for more than 80 percent of all lung cancers.

At the ASCO meeting, Chinese researchers had more than 70 original research studies selected for oral presentations. Sino Biopharm had 12 clinical studies selected for oral presentations, setting a new record for Chinese pharmaceutical enterprises.