Aiming to help create China’s first original treatment for under-researched rare diseases, the Hope for Rare Foundation is racing against a funding crunch to support translational research in China, its co-founder and secretary-general tells Scrip in an interview.

Industry has been slow to embrace the idea of pragmatic clinical trials with streamlined data collection, so the Oncology Center of Excellence now is turning to the broader cancer community for research proposals.

Zenas BioPharma plans to have data from four trials – two under way and two starting this summer – for obexelimab, which targets CD19 and FcγRIIb, within about a year and a half.

As COVID-19 vaccine sales decline, the company is investing billions in a diverse oncology pipeline including antibody drug conjugates, immunotherapy and cancer vaccines