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Chinese doctors have given their patients the first sheets of prescriptions of a new, home-developed breast cancer drug. In Beijing, Inetetamab, a targeted injection drug for metastatic
HER2-positive breast cancer patients, was first prescribed in the cancer
hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences on Wednesday, 12
days after the drug was approved for clinical use. Meanwhile, Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong, and Zhejiang provinces also
witnessed their first prescriptions of the drug, given at local medical
institutions. Developed by Sunshine Guojian Pharmaceutical (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., a
subsidiary of 3SBio, Inetetamab was approved for clinical use by the
National Medical Products Administration on June 19. In recent years, China has been striving to speed up the registration
and approval of both foreign and home-made new cancer drugs, and to
promote the replacement of imported drugs that are costly, but urgently
and essentially needed with domestic ones. According to a report released by the National Cancer Center in 2019,
breast cancer is the cancer with the highest incidence rate among
women. In 2015, the number of new breast cancer cases in China reached
304,000, of which 20 to 25 percent were HER2-positive patients. HER2, or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, is a type of
protein in the breast tissue, helping to control breast cells dividing,
growing, and repairing. When the HER2 gene is abnormal, it encourages
the rapid growth of cancer cells. The HER2-positive breast cancer tends
to grow faster, spreads more easily, and is more likely to recur. Earlier studies show that Inetetamab has a stronger effect on
antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC). ADCC is an immune
response, in which antibodies, by coating target tumor cells, make them
vulnerable to attacks from immune cells. The new drug has broken the monopoly on the anti-HER2 monoclonal
antibody by imported drugs, and brought more choices to breast cancer
patients, said Lou Jing, chairman of 3SBio.
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