Chinese biopharmaceutical company Akeso Inc (HK:9926) announced on Wednesday that the first patient has been enrolled in the Phase 3 randomised, double-blind, multicentre clinical trial of its independently developed PD-1/CTLA-4 bispecific antibody, cadonilimab.

The COMPASSION-30/AK104-309 study is assessing the efficacy of cadonilimab compared to sugemalimab (PD-L1) as a consolidation therapy for patients with locally advanced, non-resectable, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have not experienced disease progression following concurrent or sequential chemoradiotherapy.

Prof. Jinming Yu, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of the Oncology Hospital at Shandong First Medical University, leads the study.

As a global first-in-class bispecific antibody targeting both PD-1 and CTLA-4, cadonilimab is anticipated to enhance the efficacy of immunotherapy compared to PD-1/PD-L1 single-target antibodies.