Conbercept Treatment of Wet AMD Completes 36-Week Primary Endpoint Visits of Phase 3 Trial

China-based Chengdu Kanghong Pharmaceutical Group announced a key development milestone of its key product conbercept last month.

Kanghong is seeking global approval of conbercept by undertaking a multicenter, multinational, double-masked, parallel-group, dose-ranging, active-controlled, randomized trial (PANDA) to test the efficacy and safety of conbercept intravitreal injection in the treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). PANDA trials recently reached a milestone by completing 36-week primary endpoint visits of enrolled patients. Conbercept is expected to launch globally in 2023, bringing a new treatment option to patients. 

Conbercept is a new generation anti-VEGF fusion protein, approved and marketed in China as Lumitin, for the treatment of retina diseases. Conbercept acts to inhibit the growth of new abnormal blood vessels and improve blood vessel permeability by blocking signal transmission mediated by vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).

After 10 years of development, Conbercept was first approved in China in 2014. In the same year, at the 11th Annual American Neovascularization Conference, a special report, “Wet AMD: Conbercept Phase III Clinical Trial Results” garnered much attention and praise from industry and clinical experts. In particular, Professor Philip J. Rosenfeld, conference Chairman, said “conbercept provides us with new opportunities for anti-VEGF drugs to prevent blindness. It is unique in structure and can provide better durability and greater effectiveness.” In the first half of this year, nearly 0.36 million people have received treatment with conbercept.

Conbercept was permitted by the FDA in 2016 and the European Medicine Agency in 2017 to directly enter phase 3 clinical trials, which was approved for FDA’s Special Protocol Assessment (SPA) in 2018. PANDA trials are conducted in more than 300 research sites across 30 countries.