Innovent Biologics, an SIP-based biotech unicorn, and its partner Eli Lilly and Company, a global leading pharmaceutical company based in the United States, jointly announced on Dec 27 that they have received approval from National Medical Products Administration of China for marketing Sintilimab, a fully human anti-PD(programmed death)-1 antibody they co-developed. The monoclonal antibody has already shown potent anti-tumor activity in clinical trials conducted home and abroad.

"Our mission is to develop and commercialize high-quality biopharmaceutical products that are affordable for ordinary people. Sintilimab will bring new hope for patients with relapsed and refractory classical Hodgkin Lymphoma, and is expected to be used together with other drugs in combination therapies against cancers," said Dr. Michael DC Yu, founding CEO and president of Innovent Biologics.

According to results from the early clinical trials, Sintilimab, which works by preventing PD-1 on immune cells from binding to PD-L1 at the surface of cancer cells, induces high response rates in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who have failed at least one prior treatment, particularly in those with a high number of mutations in their tumor cells.