After slashing the prices of their blockbuster drugs to gain wider patient access through China's main reimbursement program, multinationals are now beginning to face increasing challenges from local competitors.

Special guest, Citeline's Annie Siu, discusses the recent ESMO meeting and Jiangsu Hengrui and BeiGene's PD-1 data for hepatocellular carcinoma in this latest episode of the Chinese-language China Biotech podcast.

Oversee returnee-founded Chinese biotech start-ups Nuwacell and Arnatar secure $14m in series A and seed rounds respectively, while four other major deals backed by private equity and venture capital firms raise a combined $116m.

The US- and China-based biotech is expanding three oncology-centered clinical studies of two TGF-1/COX-2-targeted siRNA drug candidates from the US into China.

Large or small, Chinese biotechs are receiving the cold shoulder from some investors amid souring investment sentiment. HanBio, Frontier and InnoCare have all seen their fundraising efforts hampered to various degrees.

Promising new clinical results presented at ESMO are likely to help several Chinese firms gain traction to take their new drug candidates into global markets, including the US.