Envafolimab: First Approval

Declarations

Funding The preparation of this review was not supported by any external funding.

Authorship and Conflict of interest During the peer review process the manufacturer of the agent under review was offered an opportunity to comment on the article. Changes resulting from any comments received were made by the authors on the basis of scientific completeness and accuracy. A. Markham is a salaried employee of Adis International Ltd/Springer Nature, and declares no relevant conflicts of interest. All authors contributed to the review and are responsible for the article content.

Ethics approval, Consent to participate, Consent to publish, Availability of data and material, Code availability Not applicable.

Additional information about this Adis Drug Review can be found here.

Abstract

Envafolimab (恩维达^®) is a subcutaneously (SC) administered single domain anti-programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) antibody being developed for the treatment of various solid tumours and chronic hepatitis B in China, and for soft tissue sarcomas and biliary tract cancer in the USA. Single-domain antibodies are more soluble and more rapidly penetrate tissues than full monoclonal antibodies, enabling SC administration. Based on the results of a pivotal phase II trial, SC envafolimab was recently approved in China for the treatment of adult patients with previously-treated microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) or deficient MisMatch Repair (dMMR) advanced solid tumours. This article summarizes the milestones in the development of envafolimab leading to this first approval.

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