When Samantha Du left Pfizer in 2001 to take up a drug development job in China, the country's biopharma ecosystem hadn't contributed much to the global drug pipeline since the 1967 discovery of artemisinin. Now, China's burgeoning life sciences sector is basking in venture capital, industry and government interest. Earlier this year, the China Drug Administration (CDA) granted a landmark approval for Chi-Med's fruquintinib, a discovered-and developed-in-China VEGFR inhibitor that Du helped usher towards patients during her time as CSO of Chi-Med. Zai Lab, the company that Du founded in 2014 and that she heads as CEO, is meanwhile setting new precedents by recruiting Chinese patients into global registrational trials. Du spoke with Asher Mullard about the changing Chinese biopharma ecosystem.
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Samantha Du. Nat Rev Drug Discov 17, 856–857 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd.2018.208
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd.2018.208
