Amid daily updates from the pharmaceuticals industry on the latest clinical trials, last week’s announcement by Hutchison China MediTech that it had enrolled patients for a study of colorectal cancer was hardly cause for excitement.
But it represented another step forward for one of several experimental medicines that the company – backed by Li Ka-shing, Asia’s richest man – is developing in China.
With a market capitalisation of just £550m, London-listed China MediTech – known as Chi-Med – is not going to shake up “big pharma” overnight. However, it is part of a growing Chinese life science sector that the authorities in Beijing hope will become a force in drug development.