Shanghai, China, December 28, 2023 - Shanghai Henlius Biotech, Inc. (2696.HK) announces that recently, PT Kalbio Global Medika, the subsidiary of Henlius' partner PT Kalbe Genexine Biologics (KGbio), has received the relevant registration certificates issued by Indonesia’s National Agency for Drug and Food Control (Indonesian: Badan Pengawas Obat and Makanan, the “BPOM”) for the approval of Henlius’ self-developed and manufactured anti-PD-1 mAb HANSIZHUANG (serplulimab) in Indonesia under the trade name Zerpidio® for the treatment of extensive stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC). This is the first time HANSIZHUANG has been successfully approved for marketing in an overseas market, and it has become the first China anti-PD-1 mAb successfully approved for marketing in Southeast Asia. Currently, Henlius is joining hands with KGbio for the development and commercialisation in 22 countries, and the approval is expected to bring HANSIZHUANG to more patients in Indonesia.

Lung cancer (LC) is one of the most common malignancies around the world. According to GLOBOCAN 2020, there were near 35,000 new LC cases and 31,000 new deaths in 2020 worldwide, and LC is still the leading cause of cancer death. SCLC is the most aggressive subtype of lung cancer, accounting for around 15% of all lung cancer cases. The SCLC breaks down into limited stage small cell lung cancer (LS-SCLC) and ES-SCLC. Around 30%–40% patients are in limited stage and most patients are in extensive stage when diagnosed. Their clinical condition deteriorates rapidly, and the overall prognosis is poor. In the past 20 years, chemotherapy such as etoposide combined carboplatin/cisplatin was still the standards of care for ES-SCLC, but almost all patients in extensive stage relapse within one year, with a median overall survival (OS) of only 10 to 11 months.

The advent of immune checkpoint inhibitors has brought new hope to patients with SCLC. The company's first innovative product, HANSIZHUANG (serplulimab), was approved in China in March 2022 and became the world's first anti-PD-1 mAb for the first-line treatment of SCLC. At present, HANSIZHUANG has been approved for 4 indications in China including MSI-H solid tumour, squamous non-small cell lung cancer (sqNSCLC), ES-SCLC, and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), benefiting over 50,000 Chinese patients. In 2022, HANSIZHUANG was successively granted orphan drug designations by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Commission (EC) for the treatment of SCLC, which will enable HANSIZHUANG to benefit from certain policy support for research and development, registration, and commercialisation in the United States (U.S.) and European Union. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has validated the application for HANSIZHUANG. The company is also steadily advancing the bridging head-to-head trial in the U.S. to compare HANSIZHUANG to standard-of-care Atezolizumab (anti-PD-L1 mAb) for the first-line treatment of ES-SCLC to propel the product towards U.S. market approval.

With its breakthrough efficacy and differentiation advantages in the relevant treatment fields, HANSIZHUANG has earned wide recognition and its pivotal clinical research results have been published in leading medical journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association(JAMA) and Nature Medicine. Its synergy with in-house products of the company and innovative therapies are being actively promoted and over 10 clinical trials on immuno-oncology combination therapies are in progress in a wide variety of indications, such as lung cancer, esophageal carcinoma, gastric cancer, etc., covering the full range of first-line treatments of lung cancers. As of now, the company has enrolled more than 3,600 subjects globally.

In 2019, Henlius reached a collaboration agreement with KGbio, upon which KGbio is granted exclusive rights to develop and commercialize HANSIZHUANG in certain therapies in 10 ASEAN member countries. In 2023, the collaboration has been further expanded to 12 Middle East and North African (MENA) countries for two indications of HANSIZHUANG including ES-SCLC, covering a total of 22 emerging market countries. In the future, Henlius will work closely with KGbio and other global partners to promote approval of HANSIZHUANG in more countries.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/FTKvMrf_2qCKiwRG9-jmSA