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Simultaneous development of zanubrutinib in the USA and China

Zanubrutinib was recently granted expedited approval by the USA and Chinese drug regulatory authorities for the treatment of mantle cell lymphoma, thus becoming the first investigational new drug discovered in China to achieve simultaneous development in both countries. Here, we provide an overview of the regulatory processes and considerations of the two health authorities and discuss the pathways of concurrent review and approval.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge extensive contributions of Yi-long Wu (Guangdong General Hospital), Ling Su (Shenyang Pharmaceutical University), Yangzhong Zhou (Peking Union Medical College Hospital), Ning Zhang and Lianjie Ren (Chinese Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE)) and Zili Li (Janssen Research & Development) for discussions relating to the composition and content of this manuscript. We are also grateful to Pharmcube (Beijing) for providing the public data on zanubrutinib.

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Correspondence to Xiaoyuan Chen.

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Chinese Drug Registration Regulations: http://www.nmpa.gov.cn/WS04/CL2077/376150.html

Project Orbis: https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/oncology-center-excellence/project-orbis

Real-Time Oncology Review: https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/oncology-center-excellence/real-time-oncology-review-pilot-program

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Li, G., Liu, X. & Chen, X. Simultaneous development of zanubrutinib in the USA and China. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 17, 589–590 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41571-020-0414-y

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