Japan's Daiichi Sankyo and the United Kingdom's AstraZeneca announced on Friday that their co-developed innovative medicine, Enhertu, has been approved for use in China as a neoadjuvant treatment for early-stage breast cancer.

This marks China as the first country globally to have this indication approved. Such development underscores the multinational pharmaceutical companies' focus on the China market and highlights the acceleration of China's drug approval reforms.

This approval, which signifies the entry of antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) into the treatment of early-stage breast cancer, serves as the latest example that China is increasingly becoming a crucial launch market for global pharmaceutical innovations, said industry experts.

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Wu Jiong, Party secretary of Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center and the lead researcher for relevant clinical studies related to this drug in China, emphasized the importance of effective preoperative neoadjuvant treatment in reducing the risk of disease recurrence, maximizing the chances of cure, and helping to reduce the intensity of surgery.

"The approval of this innovative injection offers a new treatment option and hope for clinical cure to more early-stage breast cancer patients in the country," he said.