For 61 years, the ASCO Plenary Session — the four-or-five-study marquee where practice-changing trials are unveiled — had never featured an investigational drug discovered in China. At ASCO 2026 that changed. The moment is symbolic, but the radar data shows it is not isolated: Chinese-originated oncology agents are now threaded through the entire program.
The watershed: HARMONi-6
The drug is ivonescimab, a first-in-class PD-1 × VEGF bispecific antibody from Akeso (partnered globally with Summit Therapeutics). Its Phase 3 HARMONi-6 trial randomized 532 patients with first-line advanced squamous non–small cell lung cancer to ivonescimab plus chemotherapy versus a PD-1 inhibitor plus chemotherapy — and won. With a median follow-up of about 21 months, ivonescimab delivered a statistically significant overall-survival benefit with a hazard ratio of 0.66, a 34% reduction in the risk of death, and the results were published simultaneously in The Lancet. Beating an active PD-1 backbone — not placebo — on overall survival in squamous lung cancer is a genuinely high bar.
That combination of facts — a China-discovered, first-in-class mechanism, a head-to-head win over the standard immunotherapy backbone, and a plenary slot — is why HARMONi-6 is being read as the moment Chinese biopharma arrived as an originator of global-first science rather than a fast-follower.
Ivonescimab is the tip of a much larger iceberg
The plenary headline would be easy to file as a one-off. The radar says otherwise. We tagged every ASCO 2026 study mentioning a China-discovered oncology agent, and the breadth is striking: roughly a dozen agents each carry double-digit study counts.
The depth spans modalities and generations. The first wave — domestic anti–PD-1 antibodies (tislelizumab, toripalimab, sintilimab, camrelizumab) — is now mature, collectively anchoring well over 150 studies. The second wave is the differentiated one: bispecifics (ivonescimab PD-1×VEGF, cadonilimab PD-1×CTLA-4) and antibody-drug conjugates (disitamab vedotin, sacituzumab tirumotecan) where Chinese companies are competing on novel mechanism rather than on price.
| Drug (originator) | Class | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ivonescimab (Akeso / Summit) | PD-1 × VEGF bispecific | 2 | 9 | 20 |
| cadonilimab (Akeso) | PD-1 × CTLA-4 bispecific | 18 | 17 | 24 |
| tislelizumab (BeiGene) | Anti–PD-1 | 74 | 63 | 68 |
| toripalimab (Junshi) | Anti–PD-1 | 46 | 41 | 41 |
| sintilimab (Innovent) | Anti–PD-1 | 36 | 43 | 35 |
| fruquintinib (Hutchmed) | VEGFR TKI | 18 | 28 | 28 |
| disitamab vedotin (RemeGen) | HER2 ADC | 18 | 25 | 18 |
| sacituzumab tirumotecan (Kelun/Merck) | TROP2 ADC | 2 | 9 | 8 |
The momentum is in the differentiated assets
The most important column in that table is the trend. The mature PD-1 antibodies are flat to slightly declining — a sign of a saturated domestic IO market. The growth is in the differentiated assets: ivonescimab more than doubled (9 → 20), cadonilimab grew to 24, and the global-partnership ADCs are building real programs. This is exactly the maturation pattern a sophisticated BD team watches for — a national ecosystem graduating from me-too checkpoint inhibitors to first-in-class biology.
What it means commercially
For BD and licensing: the in-licensing pipeline for Western pharma increasingly runs through Chinese biotech. Ivonescimab's Summit partnership, sacituzumab tirumotecan's Merck deal, and a string of recent multi-billion-dollar out-licensings are the template. The radar's China view is, in effect, a sourcing list for the next wave of cross-border deals.
For competitive strategy: a PD-1×VEGF bispecific beating a PD-1 backbone on overall survival puts every incumbent immunotherapy franchise on notice. The question for any company with a PD-1/PD-L1 asset is no longer "how do we combine?" but "do we need a VEGF or CTLA-4 second specificity to stay competitive?"
Explore the underlying data
Every number above is live and pivotable on the Knitify ASCO Radar — analyze the 7,222 studies in the ASCO 2026 program by drug, indication, sponsor, or trial-in-progress status, and compare year over year against 2025 and 2024. Filter the board to a China-originated drug to reproduce every count in this article. The radar links to each study on the official ASCO program; it does not reproduce copyrighted text.
Methodology & scope: figures in this article are structured signals the Knitify ASCO Radar derives from the publicly released ASCO 2026 scientific program (7,222 studies presented; 6,511 in 2025; 5,885 in 2024) — counting how many studies reference a given drug, indication, or modality class. They quantify research attention and momentum, not clinical efficacy or market share. Named trial results are quoted from public company press releases, the ASCO press program, and peer-reviewed journals (cited below). The radar does not reproduce any copyrighted text — it links to each study on the official ASCO program. This is editorial commentary on public data — not investment, legal, regulatory, or medical advice.