Major deals showed an increasing focus on domestic tie-ups while an unsatiable appetite for innovation drove drug firms to actively seek out biotechs for collaboration.

Latest approval gives major US drug maker new foothold in China’s heated and increasingly crowded PD-1 immuno-oncology race.

Rapid, uncoordinated growth has turned the PD-1/L1 inhibitor pipeline into a global stampede, FDA’s Pazdur and Beaver say. Solutions like a unified submission pathway and coordinated trial design pose challenges requiring international cooperation among governments and industry alike.

The swift rise of China’s oncology R&D has put at least four novel applications before FDA with pivotal data generated only in China.