Ivonescimab becoming the first China-discovered drug in an ASCO Plenary in 61 years was the symbol of China's arrival (we covered it here). But a symbol is not a strategy. When you analyze the whole ASCO 2026 program through the Knitify radar, the durable story is structural — and far bigger than one drug. China's oncology ecosystem is doing exactly what a maturing innovation engine does: it is graduating from me-too biology to first-in-class.
The maturation signature, in one chart
Track China-originated drugs by modality across three years and the rotation is unmistakable. The mature classes — domestic PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies and small-molecule TKIs — are flat to declining. The differentiated, engineered-antibody classes are surging.
The numbers are the thesis. China's bispecific studies more than doubled (20 → 41), its antibody-drug conjugates built out (20 → 27, with 35 in the interim year), while its PD-1/PD-L1 volume actually fell (232 → 219). This is precisely the pattern a sophisticated BD team watches for: a national ecosystem leaving the commoditized checkpoint market behind and competing on novel mechanism.
| China-origin modality | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Read |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PD-1 / PD-L1 antibodies | 232 | 242 | 219 | ▼ Saturated / commoditizing |
| TKIs / small molecules | 112 | 119 | 92 | ▼ Maturing |
| Bispecific antibodies | 20 | 23 | 41 | ▲ Doubled |
| Antibody-drug conjugates | 20 | 35 | 27 | ▲ Building out |
Two assets show what "first-in-class from China" looks like
cadonilimab (Akeso) is the world's first approved PD-1×CTLA-4 bispecific, and at ASCO 2026 it appears across MSI-H gastrointestinal disease, cervical cancer, and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (18 → 17 → 24 studies). ivonescimab (Akeso/Summit), the PD-1×VEGF bispecific, grew from 2 to 20 studies and is already fanning out from lung into head and neck, biliary, and colorectal cancer. Neither is a copy of a Western drug — they are novel formats that Western pharma is now chasing.
zanubrutinib: the quiet proof of best-in-class
The loudest China story at ASCO 2026 was ivonescimab. The most important may be the quiet one. zanubrutinib (BeiGene), with 18 studies anchored in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (7) and Waldenström macroglobulinemia, was the first China-discovered medicine to beat a US blockbuster — ibrutinib — head-to-head on efficacy. When a Chinese BTK inhibitor outperforms the molecule that built a multi-billion- dollar franchise, the question of whether China can originate global best-in-class therapeutics is already answered.
China owns the Asia-burden cancers
China's assets are not scattered randomly across oncology — they concentrate where the disease burden is highest in Asia, in tumors Western pharma historically under-served.
In hepatocellular (liver) carcinoma, 14% of all ASCO 2026 studies involve a China-discovered drug; in nasopharyngeal carcinoma, biliary tract cancer, and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, the share is roughly 13% each. China built the trials, the drugs, and now the intellectual property in exactly these indications — and that IP is global. The clearest proof: toripalimab (Junshi) became the first China-developed drug ever approved by the US FDA, for nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
The out-licensing goldmine
For Western pharma, the practical consequence is that the China track has become a sourcing map. The differentiated assets do not stay domestic — they get out-licensed to Western partners in multi-billion-dollar deals.
| China-origin asset (modality) | Originator | Western partner |
|---|---|---|
| ivonescimab (PD-1×VEGF bispecific) | Akeso | Summit Therapeutics |
| sacituzumab tirumotecan (TROP2 ADC) | Kelun-Biotech | Merck |
| fruquintinib (VEGFR TKI) | Hutchmed | Takeda |
| disitamab vedotin (HER2 ADC) | RemeGen | Seagen / Pfizer |
These are not outliers; they are the emerging default. The China-origin ADC bench alone — disitamab vedotin (now expanding from urothelial and gastric into HER2-expressing ovarian disease), sacituzumab tirumotecan, and Hengrui's trastuzumab rezetecan — reads like a list of the next cross-border transactions. The assets are public, in the ASCO program, and discoverable before a banker is engaged.
The commercialization read
For BD and licensing: stop reading China by its PD-1s. The value, the differentiation, and the deal flow are in its bispecifics and ADCs — and the radar's China view is, in effect, a pre-banker sourcing list. For competitive strategy: a China-origin PD-1×VEGF bispecific beating a PD-1 backbone on overall survival, and a China-origin BTK inhibitor beating the category's founder, both signal that "best-in- class" is no longer a Western monopoly. For investors: the modality rotation inside China — away from commoditized checkpoint antibodies, toward engineered biologics — is a cleaner leading indicator of durable value than headline counts of domestic PD-1 approvals.
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.